BANCROFT 
LIBRARY 

o- 

THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


LETTER 


HON.    HENRY   CLAY, 


ANNEXATION    OF    TEXAS    TO    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


BY  WILLIAM    E.   CHANNING 


. 
BOSTON: 

JAMES   MUNROE  AND   COMPANY. 
1837. 


Cambridge  Press: 
Metcalf,  Torry,  and  Ballou. 


LETTER. 


MY  DEAR  SIR, 

I  TRUST,  that  you  wijl  excuse  the  liberty  which  I  take 
in  thus  publicly  addressing  you.  If  you  could  look  into 
my  heart,  I  am  sure  you  would  not  condemn  rne.  You 
would  discover  the  motives  of  this  act,  in  my  respect  for 
your  eminent  powers,  and  in  my  confidence  that  you  are 
disposed  to  use  them  for  the  honor  and  happiness  of  your 
country.  Were  you  less  distinguished,  or  less  worthy  of 
distinction,  I  should  not  trouble  you  with  this  letter.  I 
write  you,  because  I  am  persuaded,  that  your  great  influ- 
ence, if  exerted  in  promoting  just  views  on  the  subject  of 
this  communication,  would  accomplish  a  good,  to  which, 
perhaps,  no  other  man  in  the  country  is  equal.  I  am  bound 
in  frankness,  to  add  another  reason  for  addressing  you. 
I  hope  that  your  name,  prefixed  to  this  letter,  may  secure 
to  it  an  access  to  some,  perhaps  to  many,  who  would  turn 
away,  were  its  thoughts  presented  in  a  more  general  form. 
Perhaps  by  this  aid,  it  may  scale  the  barrier,  which  now 
excludes  from  the  South  a  certain  class  of  the  writings  of 
the  North.  I  am  sure  your  hospitality  would  welcome  me 
to  Kentucky ;  and  your  well  known  generosity,  I  believe, 
will  consent  that  I  should  use  your  name,  to  gain  a  hearing 
in  that  and  the  neighboring  states. 

It  is  with  great  reluctance  that  I  enter   on  the  topic  of 
this  letter.     My  tastes  and  habits  incline  me  to  very  differ- 


ent  objects  of  thought  and  exertion.  I  had  hoped,  that  I 
should  never  again  feel  myself  called  to  take  part  in  the 
agitations  and  exciting  discussions  of  the  day,  especially  in 
those  of  a  political  character.  I  desire  nothing  so  much 
as  to  devote  what  remains  of  life,  to  the  study  and  exposi- 
tion of  great  principles  and  universal  truths.  But  the  sub- 
ject of  Texas  weighs  heavily  on  my  mind,  and  I  cannot 
shake  it  off.  To  me,  it  is  more  than  a  political  question. 
It  belongs  eminently  to  morals  and  religion.  I  have  hoped, 
that  the  attention  of  the  public  would  be  called  to  it  by 
some  more  powerful  voice.  I  have  postponed  writing, 
until  the  national  legislature  is  about  to  commence  the 
important  session,  in  which,  it  is  thought,  this  subject  may 
be  decided.  But  no  one  speaks,  and  therefore  I  cannot  be 
silent.  Should  Texas  be  annexed  to  our  country,  I  feel 
that  I  could  not  forgive  myself,  if,  with  my  deep,  solemn 
impressions,  I  should  do  nothing  to  avert  the  evil.  I  can- 
not easily  believe,  that  this  disastrous  measure  is  to  be 
adopted,  especially  at  the  present  moment.  The  annexa- 
tion of  Texas  under  existing  circumstances,  would  be  more 
than  rashness  ;  it  would  be  madness.  That  opposition  to  it 
must  exist  at  the  South,  as  well  as  at  the  North,  I  cannot 
doubt.  Still,  there  is  a  general  impression,  that  great  efforts 
will  be  made  to  accomplish  this  object  at  the  approaching 
session  of  Congress,  and  that  nothing  but  strenuous  resis- 
tance can  prevent  their  success.  I  must  write,  therefore,  as 
if  the  danger  were  real  and  imminent;  and  if  any  should 
think  that  I  am  betrayed  into  undue  earnestness  by  a  false 
alarm,  they  will  remember  that  there  are  circumstances, 
in  which  excess  of  vigilance  is  a  virtue. 

In  the  course  of  this  discussion,  I  shall  be  forced  to 
speak  on  one  topic,  which  can  hardly  be  treated  so  as  to 
give  no  offence.  I  am  satisfied  that  in  this,  as  in  all  cases, 
it  is  best,  safest,  as  well  as  most  right  and  honorable,  to 


speak  freely  and  plainly.  Nothing  is  to  be  gained  by  cau- 
tion, circumlocution,  plausible  softenings  of  language,  and 
other  arts,  which,  in  destroying  confidence,  defeat  their 
own  end.  In  discussions  of  an  irritating  nature,  the  true 
way  of  doing  good  is,  to  purify  ourselves  from  all  unwor- 
thy motives,  to  cherish  disinterested  sentiments  and  un- 
affected good-will  towards  those  from  whom  we  differ,  and 
then  to  leave  the  mind  to  utter  itself  naturally  and  sponta- 
neously. How  far  I  have  prepared  myself  for  my  work, 
by  this  self-purification,  it  becomes  not  me  to  say  ;  but 
this  I  may  say,  that  I  am  not  conscious  of  the  slightest 
asperity  of  feeling  towards  any  party  or  any  individual. 
I  have  no  private  interests  to  serve,  no  private  passions 
to  gratify.  The  strength  of  my  conviction  may  be  ex- 
pressed in  strong,  perhaps  unguarded  language ;  but  this 
want  of  caution  is  the  result  of  the  consciousness,  that  I 
have  no  purpose  or  feeling  which  I  need  conceal. 

I  shall,  in  one  respect,  depart  from  the  freedom  of  a 
letter.  I  shall  arrange  my  thoughts  under  distinct  heads, 
and  I  shall  do  this,  because  I  wish  to  put  my  reader  in 
full  possession  of  my  views.  I  wish  to  use  no  vague  decla- 
mation, to  spread  no  vague  alarm,  but  to  bring  out  as 
clearly  as  possible  the  precise  points  of  objection  to  the 
measure  I  oppose.* 

*  It  may  be  well  to  state  the  principal  authorities  on  which  I  rely 
for  the  statements  in  this  letter.  I  am  most  indebted  perhaps  to  an 
article  on  Mexico  and  Texas,  in  the  July  number  of  the  North  Ameri- 
can Review  for  the  year  1836.  This  article,  as  I  understood  at  the 
time,  was  written  by  an  enlightened  and  respected  citizen  of  the 
South.  The  quotations  in  the  first  head  of  this  letter,  without  a  margi- 
nal reference,  are  taken  from  this  tract,  with  a  few  unimportant  excep- 
tions. I  have  also  made  use  of  a  pamphlet,  bearing  the  title  of  the 
"  War  in  Texas,"  written  by  Mr.  Benjamin  Lundy,  a  man  of  unim- 
peachable character,  and  who  professes  to  have  given  particular  atten- 
tion to  the  subject.  With  his  reasonings  and  opinions,  I  have  nothing 
1* 


6 

I.  We  have  a  strong  argument  against  annexing  Texas 
to  the  United  States,  in  the  Criminality  of  the  revolt  which 
threatens  to  sever  that  country  from  Mexico.  On  this 
point  our  citizens  need  light.  The  Texan  insurrection  is 
seriously  regarded  by  many  among  us  as  a  struggle  of  the 
oppressed  for  freedom.  The  Texan  revolution  is  thought 
to  resemble  our  own.  Our  own  is  contaminated  by  being 
brought  into  such  relationship,  and  we  owe  to  our  fathers 
and  ourselves  a  disclaimer  of  affinity  with  this  new  repub- 
lic. The  Texan  revolt,  if  regarded  in  its  causes  and  its 
means  of  success,  is  criminal ;  arid  we  ought  in  no  way  to 
become  partakers  in  its  guilt.  You,  I  doubt  not,  are  famil- 
iar with  its  history  ;  but  for  the  benefit  of  some,  into  whose 
hands  this  letter  may  fall,  I  will  give  the  leading  facts. 

The  first  grant  of  land  in  Texas  to  our  citizens,  was 
made  under  the  Royal  Government ;  and  in  accepting  it, 
the  obligation  was  expressly  incurred,  of  submission  to  the 
civil  and  religious  despotism  which  then  crushed  the  coun- 
try. It  was  understood,  that  the  settlers  were  to  adopt  the 
Catholic  faith,  and  to  conform  in  all  other  respects  to  the 
institutions  of  Mexico.  Under  the  revolutionary  govern- 
ments, which  succeeded  the  fall  of  the  Spanish  power,  the 

to  do ;  but  his  statement  of  facts  has  been  represented  to  me  as  worthy 
of  full  credit.  I  have  also  consulted  a  "  History  of  Texas,  by  David 
B.  Edwards."  I  know  not  that  this  has  furnished  me  any  thing-  of  im- 
portance. But,  by  its  undesigned  coincidence,  it  corroborates  the  pre- 
ceding articles.  My  chief  reliance,  however,  is  not  on  books,  but  on 
the  notoriety  of  the  facts  here  given,  which  may  be  considered  as  a 
testimony  borne  to  them  by  the  whole  people.  This  is  a  singularly 
unexceptionable  testimony  in  the  present  case ;  because  it  is  well 
known,  that  the  advocates  of  the  Texan  revolt  have  had  possession,  to 
a  great  degree,  of  the  press  of  this  country,  and  unfavorable  accounts 
could  riot  have  obtained  general  currency,  without  a  foundation  in  truth. 
Let  me  add,  that  by  "  the  North,"  I  understand  in  this  letter  all  the 
free  states,  and  by  "  the  South,"  all  the  slaveholding  states,  except 
where  the  terms  are  plainly  restricted  by  the  connexion. 


original  grant  was  confirmed,  and  new  ones  made,  on  con- 
dition of  subjection  to  the  laws  of  the  land.  The  terms 
were  very  liberal,  except  that  adherence  to  the  Catholic 
religion  was  required  as  the  condition  of  settlement. 
These  facts  will  help  us  to  understand  the  reasonable- 
ness of  some  of  the  complaints,  under  which  the  colonists 
seek  to  shelter  their  revolt. 

Mexico,  on  declaring  her  independence  on  the  mother 
country,  established  a  republican  government,  and  was 
unfortunately  betrayed  by  her  admiration  of  this  country 
into  the  adoption  of  a  Federal  system,  for  which  no  foun- 
dation had  been  laid  in  her  previous  history.  From  this 
cause,  added  to  her  inexperience  in  self-government,  and 
to  the  want  of  intelligence  among  the  mass  of  her  popula- 
tion, her  institutions  have  yielded  very  imperfectly  the 
fruits  of  freedom.  The  country  has  been  rent  by  factions, 
the  capital  convulsed  by  revolutions,  and  the  chief  office  of 
the  state  been  secured  by  the  military  to  popular  chief- 
tains. The  emigrants  from  this  country  to  Texas,  went 
with  open  eyes,  with  full  knowledge  of  the  unsettled  state 
of  affairs,  into  this  region  of  misrule  and  agitation.  Happily 
their  distance,  from  the  seat  of  government  prevented  their 
being  drawn  into  the  whirlpool  of  civil  contests,  which 
threatened  at  times  the  destruction  of  the  metropolis. 
Whilst  the  city  of  Mexico  was  pillaged  or  laid  under  mar- 
tial law,  Texas  found  security  in  her  remoteness;  and,  had 
her  colonists  proved  loyal  citizens,  this  security  might  have 
been  undisturbed. 

Complaints  of  one  another,  soon  sprung  up  between  the 
General  Government  and  Texas.  Mexico  complained  of 
the  gross  infraction  of  her  laws,  and  Texas  of  the  violence 
of  the  means  by  which  it  was  attempted  to  enforce  them. 
That  both  parties  had  ground  of  reproach,  we  cannot 
doubt ;  nor  is  it  easy  to  strike  the  balance  between  them, 


8 

or  to  say  where  the  chief  blame  lies.  The  presumption  is 
strong,  that  the  fault  began  with  the  colonists.  We  of  this 
country,  receiving  our  accounts  of  the  controversy  from 
Texans,  are  in  danger  of  being  warped  in  our  judgments. 
But  we  have  for  our  guidance,  our  knowledge  of  human 
nature,  which  helps  us  to  construe  the  testimony  of  inter- 
ested witnesses,  and  which,  in  the  present  case,  cannot 
easily  deceive  us.  If  we  consider  the  distance  of  Texas 
from  the  seat  of  government,  her  scattered  population,  her 
vicinity  to  a  slave  country,  the  general  character  of  the 
first  settlers  in  a  wilderness,  and  the  difficulty  of  subjecting 
them  to  regular  'tribunals ;  can  we  doubt  for  a  moment, 
that  Mexico  had  cause  for  the  complaints,  which  she  urged, 
of  the  gross  infractions  and  evasions  of  her  laws  in  Texas, 
especially  of  the  laws  relating  to  revenue,  and  to  the  ex- 
clusion of  slaves?  On  the  other  hand,  if  we  consider  the 
circumstances  of  Mexico,  can  we  doubt,  that  the  military 
force  sent  by  her  to  Texas,  and  needed  there  to  enforce 
the  laws,  abused  its  power  more  or  less?  That  lawless 
men  should  be  put  down  by  lawless  means,  especially  in  a 
country  swept  by  the  spirit  of  revolution,  is  an  effect  too 
common  and  natural  to  excite  wonder.  The  wonder  is  that 
Texas  escaped  with  so  little  injury.  Whether  she  would 
have  suffered  at  all,  had  she  submitted  in  good  faith  to  the 
laws  which  she  had  pledged  herself  to  obey,  may  be  fairly 
questioned.  I  ask  you,  Sir,  whether  it  is  not  your  delib- 
erate conviction,  that  Mexico,  from  the  beginning  of  her 
connexion  with  the  colonists,  has  been  more  sinned  against 
than  sinning.  But  allowing  that  the  violent  means,  used 
by  Mexico  for  enforcing  her  authority,  were  less  provoked 
than  we  believe  them  to  have  been ;  did  not  the  Texans 
enter  the  country  with  a  full  knowledge  of  its  condition  ? 
Did  they  not  become  citizens  of  a  state,  just  escaped  from 
a  grinding  despotism,  just  entered  into  the  school  of  free- 


9 

dom,  which  had  been  inured  for  ages  to  abuses  of  mili- 
tary power,  and  whose  short  republican  history  had  been 
made  up  of  civil  agitation  ?  In  swearing  allegiance  to 
such  a  state,  did  they  not  consent  to  take  their  chance  of 
the  evils,  through  which  it  must  have  been  expected  to 
pass  in  its  way  to  firm  and  free  institutions  ?  Was  there, 
or  could  there  be  in  so  unsettled  a  society,  that  deliberate, 
settled,  inflexible  purpose  of  spoiling  the  colonists  of  their 
rights,  which  alone  absolves  a  violation  of  allegiance  from 
the  guilt  of  treason. 

Some  of  the  grounds,  on  which  the  Texans  justify  their 
conflict  for  independence,  are  so  glaringly  deficient  in 
truth  and  reason,  that  it  is  hard  to  avoid  suspicion  of 
every  defence  set  up  for  their  revolt.  They  complain  of 
being  denied  the  right  of  worshipping  God  according  to 
the  dictates  of  their  consciences;  and  this  they  do,  though 
they  entered  the  country  and  swore  allegiance  to  its  gov- 
ernment, with  full  knowledge  that  the  Catholic  religion  was 
the  religion  of  the  State  and  alone  tolerated  by  the  con- 
stitution. What  increases  the  hollowness  and  criminality 
of  the  pretence,  is,  that  notwithstanding  the  provision  of 
the  constitution,  protestant  sects  had  held  their  meetings 
undisturbed  in  Texas,  and  no  persecution  had  ever  taken 
place  on  account  of  difference  of  creed. 

Another  grievance  by  which  they  justify  their  revolt  is, 
that  the  trial  by  jury  had  been  withheld;  and  this  complaint 
they  have  the  courage  to  make,  although  they  were  fully 
aware,  before  becoming  the  adopted  citizens  of  the  country, 
that  this  mode  of  trial  was  utterly  unknown  to  its  jurispru- 
dence, and  though,  in  the  constitution  of  the  State  of  Coa- 
huila  and  Texas,  the  following  article  had  been  introduced. 
"  One  of  the  principal  subjects  for  the  attention  of  Con- 
gress [State  Legislature]  shall  be  to  establish  in  criminal 
cases  the  trial  by  jury,  extending  it  gradually,  and  even 


10 

adopting  it  in  civil  cases,  in  proportion  as  the  advantages 
of  this  precious  institution  may  be  practically  developed." 

One  of  the  greatest  grievances  in  the  eyes  of  Texas  was 
the  change  of  the  Mexican  government  from  a  Federal  to 
a  Central  or  Consolidated  form.  But  this  change,  however 
violently  brought  about,  was  ratified  by  the  national  Con- 
gress according  to  the  rules  prescribed  by  the  constitution, 
and  was  sanctioned  by  the  Mexican  people.  The  decree 
of  Congress,  introducing  this  "  reform "  of  the  national 
institutions,  declares  the  system  of  government  "republi- 
can, popular,  and  representative,"  and  provides  all  the 
organs  by  which  such  a  government  is  characterized. 
What  also  deserves  our  consideration  in  estimating  this 
measure  is,  that  the  whole  history  of  Mexico  has  proved 
the  necessity  of  substituting  a  Central  for  a  Federal  gov- 
ernment. Liberty  and  order  can  be  reconciled  and  pre- 
served in  that  country  by  no  process  but  by  the  introduc- 
tion of  more  simple  and  efficient  institutions.  And  yet  the 
Texans,  a  handful  of  strangers,  raised  the  standard  of  re- 
volt, because  the  government  was  changed  by  a  nation  of 
nine  millions  without  their  consent. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  Texans  as  a  handful  of  people. 
At  the  breaking  out  of  the  insurrection  they  were  about 
twenty  thousand,  including  women  and  children.  They 
were  of  course  wholly  unable  to  achieve  or  maintain  na- 
tional independence ;  so  that  one  condition,  which  is  re- 
quired to  authorize  revolution,  namely  the  ability  to  sustain 
a  government,  to  perform  the  duties  of  sovereignty,  they 
could  riot  pretend  to  fulfil.  Twenty  thousand  men,  women 
and  children,  raising  the  standard  of  war  and  proposing  to 
dismember  a  mighty  empire  !  It  is  very  possible  that  there 
are  suburbs  of  London,  containing  an  equal  number  of 
discontented  people,  who  suffer  under  and  have  reason  to 
complain  of  municipal  or  national  injustice.  And  may 


11 

these  fly  to  arms,  set  up  for  a  nation,  and  strive  to  break 
the  unity  of  the  British  dominions?  It  should  also  be 
remembered,  that  the  Texans  were  not  only  a  drop  of  the 
bucket  compared  with  the  Mexican  population,  but  that 
they  were  a  decided  minority  in  the  particular  state  to 
which  they  belonged,  so  that  their  revolt  may  be  compared 
to  the  rising  of  a  county  in  Massachusetts  or  Virginia  for 
the  purpose  of  establishing  a  separate  sovereignty,  on  the 
ground  of  some  real  or  imagined  violation  of  right  on  the 
part  of  the  Federal  or  the  State  government.  Still  more, 
this  little  knot  of  Texans  were  far  from  being  unanimous 
as  to  the  revolt.  The  older  and  wealthier  inhabitants 
favored  peace.  "  There  were  great  differences  of  opinion 
among  the  colonists,  and  even  violent  party  dissensions. 
Many  who  were  in  the  quiet  enjoyment  of  their  property 
were  opposed  to  all  these  hostile  movements.  The  first 
public  declaration  of  independence  was  adopted,  not  by 
persons  assuming  to  act  in  a  representative  capacity,  but 
by  about  ninety  individuals,  all,  except  two,  Americans,  if 
we  may  judge  by  their  names,  acting  for  themselves  and 
recommending  a  similar  course  to  their  fellow-citizens. 
That  declaration  furnishes  proofs  of  the  dissensions  and 
jealousies  of  which  we  have  spoken.  —  It  proves  another 
fact,  that  the  ancient  population  of  the  province  was  fa- 
vorable to  the  new  views  of  the  government  of  Mexico."  . 
In  some  letters  written  by  Col.  S.  T.  Austin,  the  founder 
of  the  colony,  in  the  year  1834,  whilst  imprisoned  in  Mexico 
on  the  charge  of  encouraging  revolutionary  movements  in 
Texas,  we  have  some  remarkable  passages,  showing  the 
aversion  of  the  sounder  part  of  the  population  to  violent 
measures.  "  I*  wish  my  friends  and  all  Texas  to  adopt  and 
firmly  adhere  to  the  motto  and  rule  I  have  stated  in  this 
letter.  The  rule  is,  to  discountenance  in  the  most  une- 
quivocal and  efficient  manner  all  persons  who  are  in  the 


12 

habit  of  speaking  or  writing  in  violent  or  disrespectful 
terms  of  the  Mexican  people  or  authorities.  — I  have  been 
led  into  so  much  difficulty,  and  Texas  has  been  so  much 
jeopardized  in  its  true  and  permanent  interests,  by  inflam- 
matory men,  political  fanatics,  political  adventurers,  would- 
be-great  men,  vain  talkers,  and  visionary  fools,  that  I  begin 
to  lose  all  confidence  except  for  those  who  seek  their 
living  between  the  plough  handles ;  and  alas  for  them ! 
they  are  too  often  sacrificed  before  they  know  it.  —  Tol- 
erate no  more  violent  measures  and  you  will  prosper,  and 
obtain  from  the  government  all  that  reasonable  men  ought 
to  ask  for."*  It  is  very  plain  that  of  this  diminutive  colony 
the  more  reasonable  men,  had  they  not  been  overborne  by 
the  more  violent,  would  have^averted  the  civil  war.  Such 
was  the  number  which  set  up  for  a  nation  ! 

I  have  no  disposition  to  deny  that  Texas  had  grievances 
to  justify  complaint.  In  proof  of  this  I  need  no  documents. 
That  she  was  not  always  wisely  governed,  that  her  rights 
were  not  always  respected,  who  can  doubt  1  What  else 
could  be  expected  ?  Mexico  is  not  wise.  Mexico  is  not 
skilled  in  the  science  of  human  rights.  Her  civilization  is 
very  imperfect,  as  we  and  the  Texans  have  always  known  ; 
and  a  good  government  is  one  of  the  slowest  fruits  of 
civilization.  In  truth  a  good  government  exists  nowhere. 
The  errors  and  vices  of  rulers  entail  evils  on  every  state. 
Especially  in  an  extensive  community,  some  districts  will 
always  suffer  from  unwise,  partial,  unjust  legislation.  If 
every  town  or  county  may  start  up  into  a  sovereign  state, 
whenever  it  is  wronged,  society  will  be  given  up  to  per- 
petual convulsion,  and  history  be  one  bloody  record  of  re- 
volt. The  rio-ht  of  insurrection  is  to  be  exercised  most 

O 

rarely,   fearfully,   reluctantly,  and    only   in   cases   of  fixed, 


History  of  Texas,  p.  210.    Austin's  Correspondence. 


13 

pronounced,  persevering  oppression,  from  which  no  relief 
can  be  found  but  in  force.  Nothing  is  easier  than  for  any 
and  every  people  to  draw  up  a  list  of  wrongs ;  nothing 
more  ruinous,  than  to  rebel  because  every  claim  is  not 
treated  with  respect.  The  United  States  did  not  throw  off 
the  British  yoke,  because  every  human  right,  which  could 
be  demonstrated  by  moral  science,  was  not  granted  them  ; 
but  because  they  were  denied  the  rights  which  their  fathers 
had  enjoyed,  and  which  had  been  secured  to  the  rest  of  the 
empire.  They  began  with  pleading  precedent.  They  took 
their  first  stand  on  the  British  constitution.  They  claimed 
the  rights  of  Englishmen.  They  set  up  the  case  of  peculiar 
oppression;  and  did  not  appeal  to  arms,  until  they  had 
sought  redress  for  years  by  patient  and  respectful  remon- 
strance; until  they  had  exhausted  every  means  of  con- 
ciliation which  wisdom  could  devise  or  a  just  self-respect 
would  allow.  Such  was  the  code  of  national  morality  to 
which  our  fathers  bowed ;  and  in  so  doing  they  acknowl- 
edged the  sacredness  of  allegiance,  and  manifested  their 
deep  conviction  of  the  fearful  responsibility  of  subverting 
a  government  and  of  rupturing  national  ties.  A  province, 
in  estimating  its  grievances,  should  have  respect  to  the 
general  condition  of  the  country  to  which  it  belongs.  A 
colony,  emigrating  from  a  highly  civilized  country,  has  no 
right  to  expect  in  a  less  favored  state  the  privileges  it  has 
left  behind.  The  Texans  must  have  been  insane,  if,  on 
entering  Mexico,  they  looked  for  an  administration  as 
faultless  as  that  under  which  they  had  lived.  They  might 
with  equal  reason  have  planted  themselves  in  Russia,  and 
then  have  unfurled  the  banner  of  independence  near  the 
throne  of  the  Czar,  because  denied  the  immunities  of  their 
native  land.  s 

Having  thus  considered  the  grievances  of  the  Texans,  I 
now  proceed  to  consider  the  real   and   great  causes  of  the 
2 


14 

revolt.  These  are  matters  of  notoriety  so  as  to  need  no 
minute  exposition.  The  first  great  cause  was  the  un- 
bounded, unprincipled  spirit  of  land  speculation,  which  so 
tempting  a  prize  as  Texas  easily  kindled  in  multitudes  in 
the  United  States,  where  this  mode  of  gambling  is  too 
common  a  vice.  Large  grants  of  land  in  Texas  were 
originally  made  to  individuals,  chiefly  citizens  of  our 
country,  who,  in  many  cases,  transferred  their  claims  to 
joint-stock  companies  in  some  of  our  cities.  A  quotation 
will  illustrate  the  nature  of  these  grants  and  the  frauds  and 
speculations  to  which  they  gave  birth,  "  The  nominal 
grantee  is  called  the  emprcsario.  He  is  considered  by 
the  terms  of  the  contract,  merely  as  a  trustee  of  the  gov- 
ernment, having  no  title  himself  to  the  land  within  the 
limits  of  his  future  colony,  except  upon  condition  of 
settling  a  number  of  families  [within  a  given  time].  The 
settlers  themselves  receive  a  title  for  each  family  for  a 
league  square,  upon  the  express  condition  of  settlement  and 
cultivation,  and  the  payment  of  certain  very  moderate 
charges  within  a  limited  period.  It  is  believed,  that  these 
conditions  were  by  the  colonization  laws  of  Mexico  the 
basis  of  all  the  land  titles  in  Texas,  together  with  the 
further  condition,  that  all  right  and  title  should  be  forfeited, 
if  the  grantee  [or  new  settler]  should  abandon  the  country, 
or  sell  his  land  before  having  cultivated  it.  An  inspection 
of  the  various  maps  of  Texas  will  show  how  numerous 
have  been  these  privileges  conceded  to  various  empresarios. 
The  face  of  the  province  from  Neuces  to  Red  River  and 
from  the  gulf  to  the  mountains  is  nearly  covered  by  them. 
It  became  at  last  a  matter  of  greedy  speculation  ;  and  it  is 
a  notorious  fact,  that  many  of  the  empresarios,  forgetting 
the  contingent  character  of  their  own  rights  to  the  soil, 
and  the  conditions  upon  which  their  future  colonists  were 
to  receive  allotments  of  land,  proceeded  at  once  to  make 


15 

out  scrip,  which  has  been  sold  in  the  United  States  to  an 
incalculable  amount.  In  addition  to  this,  we  are  informed 
on  the  best  authority,  that  the  manufacture  of  land  titles, 
having  no  foundation  whatever,  has  been  carried  on  as  a 
regular  business.  That  frauds  of  these  different  kinds 
have  been  practised  on  the  cupidity  and  credulity  of  the 
people  of  the  United  States,  is  beyond  doubt.  Had  the 
close  of  the  present  campaign  been  what  its  opening 
seemed  to  portend,  and  the  colonies  been  broken  up,  it 
would  be  impossible  to  calculate  the  losses  which  would  be 
sustained  by  those  who  have  never  seen  the  land  which  they 
have  bought.  It  is  not  hazarding  too  much  to  say,  that 
millions  have  been  expended  in  the  Southern  and  South- 
western States." 

Texas  indeed  has  been  regarded  as  a  prey  for  land 
speculators  within  its  own  borders  and  in  the  United  States. 
To  show  the  scale  on  which  this  kind  of  plunder  has  been 
carried  on,  it  may  be  stated,  that  the  Legislature  of  Coahuila 
and  Texas,  in  open  violation  of  the  laws  of  Mexico,  were 
induced  "  by  a  company  of  land  speculators,  never  dis- 
tinctly known,  to  grant  them,  in  consideration  of  twenty 
thousand  dollars,  the  extent  of  four  hundred  square  leagues 
of  the  public  land.*  This  transaction  was  disavowed,  and 
the  grant  annulled,  by  the  Mexican  government,  and  led 
to  the  dispersion  of  the  legislature,  and  the  imprisonment 
of  the  governor,  Viesca.  And  yet  this  unauthorized,  and 
perhaps  corrupt  grant  of  public  lands  formed  the  basis  of 
new  speculation  and  frauds.  A  new  scrip  was  formed ; 
and  according  to  the  best  information  we  have  been  able  to 
obtain,  four  hundred  leagues  became,  in  the  hands  of 
speculators,  as  many  thousands.  The  extent  of  these 
frauds  is  yet  to  be  ascertained ;  for  such  is  the  blindness  of 

*  Another  account  says,  411  leagues  for  thirty  thousand  dollars. 


16 

cupidity,  that  any  thing  which  looks  fair  on  paper,  passes 
without  scrutiny,  for  a  land  title  in  Texas."  The  indigna- 
tion excited  in  the  Mexican  government  by  this  enormous 
grant,  and  the  attempt  to  seize  the  legislators  who  perpe- 
trated it,  were  among  the  immediate  excitements  to  the 
revolt.  In  consequence  of  these  lawless  proceedings,  great 
numbers  in  this  country  and  Texas  have  nominal  titles  to 
land,  which  can  only  be  substantiated  by  setting  aside  the 
authority  of  the  General  Congress  of  Mexico,  and  are  of 
consequence  directly  and  strongly  interested  in  severing 
this  province  from  the  Mexican  confederacy.  Texan  inde- 
pendence can  alone  legalize  the  mighty  frauds  of  the  land 
speculator.  Texas  must  be  wrested  from  the  country  to 
which  she  owes  allegiance,  that  her  soil  may  pass  into  the 
hands  of  cheating  and  cheated  foreigners.  We  have  here 
one  explanation  of  the  zeal,  with  which  the  Texan  cause 
was  embraced  in  the  United  States.  From  this  country 
the  great  impulse  has  been  given  to  the  Texan  revolution ; 
and  a  principal  motive  has  been>  the  unappeasable  hunger 
for  Texan  land.  An  interest  in  that  soil,  whether  real  or 
fictitious,  has  been  spread  over  our  country.  Thus  "  the 
general  zeal  for  freedom  "  which  has  stirred  and  armed  so 
many  of  our  citizens  to  fight  for  Texas,  turns  out  to  be  a 
passion  for  unrighteous  spoil. 

I  proceed  to  another  cause  of  the  revolt,  and  this  was 
the  resolution  to  throw  Texas  open  to  slaveholders  and 
slaves.  Mexico,  at  the  moment  of  throwing  off  the  Spanish 
yoke,  gave  a  noble  testimony  of  her  loyalty  to  free  prin- 
ciples, by  decreeing,  "  that  no  person  thereafter  should  be 
born  a  slave  or  introduced  as  such  into  the  Mexican  States; 
that  all  slaves  then  held,  should  receive  stipulated  wages, 
and  be  subject  to  no  punishment  but  on  trial  and  judgment 
by  the  magistrate."  The  subsequent  acts  of  the  govern- 
ment carried  out  fully  these  constitutional  provisions.  It 


17 

is  matter  of  deep  grief  and  humiliation,  that  the  emigrants 
from  this  country,  whilst  boasting  of  superior  civilization, 
refused  to  second  this  honorable  policy,  intended  to  set 
limits  to  one  of  the  greatest  social  evils.  Slaves  were 
brought  into  Texas  with  their  masters  from  the  neighboring 
States  of  this  country.  One  mode  of  evading  the  laws  was, 
to  introduce  slaves  under  formal  indentures  for  long 
periods,  in  some  cases  it  is  said  for  ninety-nine  years.  By 
a  decree  of  the  State  Legislature  of  Coahuila  and  Texas, 
all  indentures  for  a  longer  period  than  ten  years  were  an- 
nulled, and  provision  was  made  for  the  freedom  of  children 
born  during  this  apprenticeship.  This  settled,  invincible 
purpose  of  Mexico  to  exclude  slavery  from  her  limits 
created  as  strong  a  purpose  to  annihilate  her  authority  in 
Texas.  By  this  prohibition,  Texas  was  virtually  shut 
against  emigration  from  the  Southern  and  Western  portions 
of  this  country  ;  and  it  is  well  known  that  the  eyes  of  the 
South  and  West  had  for  some  time  been  turned  to  this 
province,  as  a  new  market  for  slaves,  as  a  new  field  for 
slave  labor,  and  as  a  vast  accession  of  political  power  to 
the  slaveholding  States.  That  such  views  were  prevalent, 
we  know  ;  for,  nefarious  as  they  are,  they  found  their  way 
into  the  public  prints.  The  project  of  dismembering  a 
neighboring  republic,  that  slaveholders  and  slaves  might 
overspread  a  region  which  had  been  consecrated  to  a  free 
population,  was  discussed  in  newspapers  as  coolly  as  if  it 
were  a  matter  of  obvious  right  and  unquestionable  humanity. 
A  powerful  interest  was  thus  created  for  severing  from 
Mexico  her  distant  province.  We  have  here  a  powerful 
incitement  to  the  Texan  revolt,  and  another  explanation  of 
the  eagerness,  with  which  men  and  money  were  thrown 
from  the  United  States  into  that  region  to  carry  on  the  war 
of  revolution. 

a* 


18 

I  proceed  to  another  circumstance,  which  helped  to  de- 
termine or  at  least  to  hasten  the  insurrection;  and  that  was 
the  disappointment  of  the  Texans  in  their  efforts  to  obtain 
for  themselves  an  organization  as  a  separate  state.  Texas 
and  Coahuila  had  hitherto  formed  a  single  State.  But  the 
colonists,  being  a  minority  in  the  joint  legislature,  found 
themselves  thwarted  in  their  plans.  Impatient  of  this  re- 
straint, and  probably  suffering  at  times  from  a  union  which 
gave  the  superiority  to  others,  they  prepared  for  themselves 
a  constitution,  by  which  they  were  to  be  erected  into  a 
separate  State,  neglecting  in  their  haste  the  forms  prescribed 
by  the  Mexican  law.  This  instrument  they  forwarded  to 
the  capital  for  the  sanction  of  the  General  Congress,  by 
whom  it  was  immediately  rejected.  Its  informality  was  a 
sufficient  reason  for  its  finding  no  better  reception  ;  but 
the  omission  of  all  provision  to  secure  the  country  against 
slavery  was  a  more  serious  obstacle  to  its  ratification.  The 
irritation  of  the  Texans  was  great.  Once  invested  with 
the  powers  of  a  State,  they  would  not  have  found  it  difficult, 
in  their  remoteness  from  the  capital  and  in  the  unsettled 
state  of  the  nation,  to  manage  their  affairs  in  their  own 
way.  A  virtual  independence  might  have  been  secured, 
and  the  laws  of  Mexico  evaded  with  impunity.  Their  ex- 
asperation was  increased  by  the  imprisonment  of  the  agent 
who  had  carried  the  instrument  to  Mexico,  and  who  had 
advised  them,  in  an  intercepted  letter,  to  take  matters  into 
their  own  hands,  or  to  organize  a  State  Government  without 
authority  from  the  National  Congress.  Thus  denied  the 
privilege  of  a  separate  State,  and  threatened  with  new  at- 
tempts on  the  part  of  the  General  Government  to  enforce 
the  laws,  they  felt  that  the  critical  moment  had  arrived  ; 
and,  looking  abroad  for  help,  resolved  to  take  the  chances 
of  a  conflict  with  the  crippled  power  of  Mexico* 


19 

Such  were  the  chief  excitements  to  the  revolt.  Un- 
doubtedly, the  Texans  were  instigated  by  the  idea  of 
wrongs,  as  well  as  by  mercenary  hopes.  But  had  they 
yielded  true  obedience  to  the  country  of  which  they  had, 
with  their  own  free  will,  become  a  part;  had  they  submitted 
to  the  laws  relating  to  the  revenue,  to  the  sale  of  lands, 
and  to  slavery  ;  the  wrongs  of  which  they  complained  might 
never  have  been  experienced,  or  might  never  have  been 
construed  into  a  plea  for  insurrection.  The  great  motives 
to  revolt  on  which  I  have  insisted  are  so  notorious,  that  it 
is  wonderful  that  any  among  us  could  be  cheated  into  sym- 
pathy with  the  Texan  cause,  as  the  cause  of  freedom. 
Slavery  and  fraud  lay  at  its  very  foundation.  It  is  notori- 
ous, that  land  speculators,  slaveholders,  and  selfish  adven- 
turers were  among  the  foremost  to  proclaim  and  engage  in 
the  crusade  for  "  Texan  liberties."  From  the  hands  of 
these  we  are  invited  to  receive  a  province,  torn  from  a 
country  to  which  we  have  given  pledges  of  amity  and 
peace.  —  In  these  remarks,  I  do  not  of  course  intend  to  say 
that  every  invader  of  Texas  was  carried  thither  by  selfish 
motives.  Some,  I  doubt  not,  were  impelled  by  a  generous 
interest  in  what  bore  the  name  of  liberty;  and  more  by 
that  natural  sympathy  which  incites  a  man  to  take  part 
with  his  countrymen  against  a  stranger,  without  stopping 
to  ask  whether  they  are  right  or  wrong.  But  the  motives, 
which  rallied  the  great  efficient  majority  round  the  standard 
of  Texas,  were  such  as  have  been  exposed,  and  should 
awaken  any  sentiment  but  respect. 

Having  considered  the  motives  of  the  revolution,  I 
proceed  to  inquire,  how  was  it  accomplished  ?  The 
answer  to  this  question  will  show  more  fully  the  criminality 
of  the  enterprise.  The  Texans,  we  have  seen,  were  a  few 
thousands,  as  unfit  for  sovereignty  as  one  of  our  towns; 
and,  if  left  to  themselves,  must  have  utterly  despaired 


20 

of  achieving  independence.  They  looked  abroad ;  and 
to  whom  did  they  look  ?  To  any  foreign  state  ?  To  the 
government  under  which  they  had  formerly  lived?  No; 
their  whole  reliance  was  placed  on  selfish  individuals  in  a 
neighboring  republic  at  peace  with  Mexico.  They  looked 
wholly  to  private  individuals,  to  citizens  of  this  country,  to 
such  among  us,  as,  defying  the  laws  of  the  land,  and 
hungry  for  sudden  gain,  should  be  lured  by  the  scent  of 
this  mighty  prey,  and  should  be  ready  to  stain  their  hands 
with  blood  for  spoil.  They  held  out  a  country  as  a  prize 
to  the  reckless,  lawless,  daring,  avaricious,  and  trusted  to 
the  excitements  of  intoxicated  imagination  and  insatiable 
cupidity,  to  supply  them  with  partners  in  their  scheme  of 
violence. 

By  whom  has  Texas  been  conquered  1  By  the  colonists  1 
By  the  hands  which  raised  the  standard  of  revolt?  By 
foreign  governments  espousing  their  cause?  No;  it  has 
been  conquered  by  your  and  my  countrymen,  by  citizens 
of  the  United  States,  in  violation  of  our  laws  and  of  the 
laws  of  nations.  We,  we  have  filled  the  ranks  which  have 
wrested  Texas  from  Mexico.  In  the  army  of  eight  hundred 
men  who  won  the  victory  which  scattered  the  Mexican 
force,  and  made  its  chief  a  prisoner,  "  not  more  than  fifty 
were  citizens  of  Texas  having  grievances  of  their  own  to 
seek  relief  from,  on  that  field."  The  Texans  in  this  war- 
fare are  little  more  than  a  name,  a  cover,  under  which 
selfish  adventurers  from  another  country  have  prosecuted 
their  work  of  plunder.. 

Some  crimes,  by  their  magnitude,  have  a  touch  of  the 
sublime ;  and  to  this  dignity  the  seizure  of  Texas  by  our 
citizens  is  entitled.  Modern  times  furnish  no  example  of 
individual  rapine  on  so  grand  a  scale.  It  is  nothing  less 
than  the  robbery  of  a  realm.  The  pirate  seizes  a  ship. 
The  colonists  and  their  coadjutors  can  satisfy  themselves 


21 

with  nothing  short  of  an  empire.  They  have  left  their 
Anglo  Saxon  ancestors  behind  them.  Those  barbarians 
conformed  to  the  maxims  of  their  age,  to  the  rude  code  of 
nations  in  time  of  thickest  heathen  darkness.  They  in- 
vaded England  under  their  sovereigns,  and  with  the  sanction 
of  the  gloomy  religion  of  the  North.  But  it  is  in  a  civil- 
ized age,  and  amidst  refinements  of  manners ;  it  is  amidst 
the  lights  of  science  arid  the  teachings  of  Christianity, 
amidst  expositions  of  the  law  of  nations  and  enforcements 
of  the  law  of  universal  love,  amidst  institutions  of  religion, 
learning,  and  humanity,  that  the  robbery  of  Texas  has 
found  its  instruments.  It  is  from  a  free,  well-ordered, 
enlightened  Christian  country,  that  hordes  have  gone 
forth  in  open  day,  to  perpetrate  this  mighty  wrong. 

Let  me  now  ask,  are  the  United  States  prepared  to  re- 
ceive from  these  hands  the  gift  of  Texas  1  In  annexing  it 
to  this  country,  shall  we  not  appropriate  to  ourselves  the 
fruits  of  a  rapine  which  we  ought  to  have  suppressed?  We 
certainly  should  shrink  from  a  proposition  to  receive  a 
piratical  state  into  our  confederacy.  And  of  whom  does 
Texas  consist?  Very  much  of  our  own  citizens,  who  have 
won  a  country  by  waging  war  against  a  foreign  nation,  to 
which  we  owed  protection  against  such  assaults.  Does  it 
consist  with  national  honor,  with  national  virtue,  to  receive 
to  our  embrace  men  who  have  prospered  by  crimes  which 
we  were  bound  to  reprobate  and  repress? 

Had  this  country  resisted  with  its  whole  power  the  law- 
lessness" of  its  citizens  ;  had  these,  notwithstanding  such 
opposition,  succeeded  in  extorting  from  Mexico  a  recogni- 
tion of  independence ;  and  were  their  sovereignty  acknow- 
ledged by  other  nations,  we  should  stand  acquitted,  in  the 
sight  of  the  civilized  world,  of  participating  in  their  crime, 
were  considerations  of  policy  to  determine  us  to  admit 
them  into  our  Union.  Unhappily  the  United  States  have 


22 

not  discharged  the  obligation  of  a  neutral  State.  They 
have  suffered,  by  a  culpable  negligence,  the  violation  of  the 
Mexican  territory  by  their  citizens ;  and  if  now,  in  the 
midst  of  the  conflict,  whilst  Mexico  yet  threatens  to  enforce 
her  claims,  they  should  proceed  to  incorporate  Texas 
with  themselves,  they  would  involve  themselves,  before  all 
nations,  in  the  whole  infamy  of  the  revolt.  The  United 
States  have  not  been  just  to  Mexico.  Our  citizens  did  not 
steal  singly,  silently,  in  disguise  into  that  land.  Their 
purpose  of  dismembering  Mexico,  and  attaching  her  distant 
province  to  this  country,  was  not  wrapt  in  mystery.  It  was 
proclaimed  in  our  public  prints.  Expeditions  were  openly 
fitted  out  within  our  borders  for  the  Texan  war.  Troops 
were  organized,  equipped,  and  marched  for  the  scene  of 
action.  Advertisements  for  volunteers  to  be  enrolled  and 
conducted  to  Texas  at  the  expense  of  that  territory,  were 
inserted  in  our  newspapers.  The  government,  indeed, 
issued  its  proclamation,  forbidding  these  hostile  prepara- 
tions ;  but  this  was  a  dead  letter.  Military  companies,  with 
officers  and  standards,  in  defiance  of  proclamations,  and  in 
the  face  of  day,  directed  their  steps  to  the  revolted  prov- 
ince. We  had,  indeed,  an  army  near  the  frontiers  of 
Mexico.  Did  it  turn'  back  these  invaders  of  a  land  with 
which  we  were  at  peace  ?  On  the  contrary,  did  not  its 
presence  give  confidence  to  the  revolters?  After  this, 
what  construction  of  our  conduct  shall  we  force  on  the 
world,  if  we  proceed,  especially  at  this  moment,  to  receive 
into  our  Union  the  territory,  which,  through  our  neglect, 
has  fallen  a  prey  to  lawless  invasion  ?  Are  we  willing  to 
take  our  place  among  robber-states  ?  As  a  people,  have 
we  no  self-respect?  Have  we  no  reverence  for  national 
morality  1  Have  we  no  feeling  of  responsibility  to  other 
nations,  and  to  Him  by  whom  the  fates  of  nations  are  dis- 
posed ? 


23 

II.  Having  unfolded  the  argument  against  the  annexa- 
tion of  Texas  from  the  criminality  of  the  revolt,  I  proceed 
to  a  second  very  solemn  consideration,  namely,  that  by  this 
act  our  country  will  enter  on  a  career  of  encroachment, 
war,  and  crime,  and  will  merit  and  incur  the  punishment 
and  woe  of  aggravated  wrong  doing.  The  seizure  of  Texas 
will  not  stand  alone.  It  will  darken  our  future  history.  It 
will  be  linked  by  an  iron  necessity  to  long  continued  deeds 
of  rapine  and  blood.  Ages  may  not  see  the  catastrophe  of 
the  tragedy,  the  first  scene  of  which  we  are  so  ready  to 
enact.  It  is  strange  that  nations  should  be  so  much  more 
rash  than  individuals ;  and  this,  in  the  face  of  experience, 
which  has  been  teaching  from  the  beginning  of  society, 
that,  of  all  precipitate  and  criminal  deeds,  those  perpetrated 
by  nations  are  the  most  fruitful  of  misery. 

Did  this  country  know  itself,  or  were  it  disposed  to  profit 
by  self-knowledge,  it  would  feel  the  necessity  of  laying  an 
immediate  curb  on  its  passion  for  extended  territory.  It 
would  not  trust  itself  to  new  acquisitions.  It  would  shrink 
from  the  temptation  to  conquest.  We  are  a  restless  people, 
prone  to  encroachment,  impatient  of  the  ordinary  laws  of 
progress,  less  anxious  to  consolidate  and  perfect,  than  to 
extend  our  institutions,  more  ambitious  of  spreading  our- 
selves over  a  wide  space,  than  of  diffusing  beauty  and  fruit- 
fulness  over  a  narrower  field.  We  boast  of  our  rapid 
growth,  forgetting  that,  throughout  nature,  noble  growths 
are  slow.  Our  people  throw  themselves  beyond  the  bounds 
of  civilization,  and  expose  themselves  to  relapses  into  a 
semi-barbarous  state,  under  the  impulse  of  wild  imagina- 
tion, and  for  the  name  of  great  possessions.  Perhaps 
there  is  no  people  on  earth,  on  whom  the  ties  of  local 
attachment  sit  so  loosely.  Even  the  wandering  tribes  of 
Scythia  are  bound  to  one  spot,  the  graves  of  their  fathers  ; 
but  the  homes  and  graves  of  our  fathers  detain  us  feebly. 


24 

The  known  and  familiar  is  often  abandoned  for  the  distant 
and  untrodden  ;  and  sometimes  the  untrodden  is  not  the 
less  eagerly  desired  because  belonging  to  others.  We  owe 
this  spirit  in  a  measure,  to  our  descent  from  men,  who  left 
the  old  world  for  the  new,  the  seats  of  ancient  cultivation 
for  a  wilderness,  and  who  advanced  by  driving  before  them 
the  old  occupants  of  the  soil.  To  this  spirit  we  have 
sacrificed  justice  and  humanity,  arid,  through  its  ascen- 
dancy, the  records  of  this  young  nation  are  stained  with 
atrocities,  at  which  communities  grown  grey  in  corruption 
might  blush. 

It  is  full  time,  that  we  should  lay  on  ourselves  serious, 
resolute  restraint.  Possessed  of  a  domain,  vast  enough  for 
the  growth  of  ages,  it  is  time  for  us  to  stop  in  the  career 
of  acquisition  and  conquest.  Already  endangered  by  our 
greatness,  we  cannot  advance  without  imminent  peril  to  our 
institutions,  union,  prosperity,  virtue,  and  peace.  Our 
former  additions  of  territory  have  been  justified  by  the 
necessity  of  obtaining  outlets  for  the  population  of  the 
South  and  the  West.  No  such  pretext  exists  for  the  occu- 
pation of  Texas.  We  cannot  seize  upon  or  join  to  our- 
selves that  territory,  without  manifesting  and  strengthening 
the  purpose  of  setting  no  limits  to  our  empire.  We  give 
ourselves  an  impulse,  which  will  and  must  precipitate 
us  into  new  invasions  of  our  neighbors'  soil.  Is  it  by 
pressing  forward  in  this  course  that  we  are  to  learn  self- 
restraint  ?  Is  cupidity  to  be  appeased  by  gratification? 
Is  it  by  unrighteous  grasping,  that  an  impatient  people  will 
be  instructed  how  to  hem  themselves  within  the  rigid 
bounds  of  justice  1 

Texas  is  a  country  conquered  by  our  citizens ;  and 
the  annexation  of  it  to  our  Union  will  be  the  beginning  of 
conquests,  which,  unless  arrested  and  beaten  back  by  a 
just  and  kind  Providence,  will  stop  only  at  the  Isthmus  of 


25 

Darien.  Henceforth,  we  must  cease  to  cry  peace,  peace. 
Our  Eagle  will  whet,  not  gorge  its  appetite  on  its  first 
victim ;  and  will  snuff  a  more  tempting  quarry,  more 
allurino-  blood,  in  every  new  region  which  opens  southward. 
To  annex  Texas,  is  to  declare  perpetual  war  with  Mexico. 
That  word,  Mexico,  associated  in  men's  minds  with 
boundless  wealth,  has  already  awakened  rapacity.  Already 
it  has  been  proclaimed,  that  the  Anglo  Saxon  race  is 
destined  to  the  sway  of  this  magnificent  realm,  that  the 
rude  form  of  society,  which  Spain  established  there,  is  to 
yield  *and  vanish  before  a  higher  civilization.  Without 
this  exposure  of  plans  of  rapine  and  subjugation,  the  re- 
sult, as  far  as  our  will  can  determine  it,  is  plain.  Texas  is 
the  first  step  to  Mexico.  The  moment  we  plant  our  author- 
ity on  Texas,  the  boundaries  of  those  two  countries  will 
become  nominal,  will  be  little  more  than  lines  on  the  sand 
of  the  seashore.  In  the  fact,  that  portions  of  the  Southern 
and  Western  States  are  already  threatened  with  devasta- 
tion, through  the  impatience  of  multitudes  to  precipitate 
themselves  into  the  Texan  land  of  promise,  we  have  a 
pledge  and  earnest  of  the  flood  which  will  pour  itself  still 
farther  south,  when  Texas  shall  be  but  partially  overrun. 

Can  Mexico  look  without  alarm  on  the  approaches  of 
this  ever  growing  tide  ?  Is  she  prepared  to  be  a  passive 
prey  ?  to  shrink  and  surrender  without  a  struggle?  Is  she 
not  strong  in  her  hatred,  if  not  in  her  fortresses  or  skill? 
Strong  enough  to  make  war  a  dear  and  bloody  game  ? 
Can  she  not  bring  to  bear  on  us  a  force,  more  formidable 
than  fleets,  the  force  of  privateers,  that  is,  of  legalized  pirates, 
which,  issuing  from  her  ports,  will  scour  the  seas,  prey  on 
our  commerce,  and  add  to  spoliation,  cruelty  and  murder  ? 

Even  were  the  dispositions  of  our  government  most 
pacific  and  opposed  to  encroachment,  the  annexation  of 
Texas  would  almost  certainly  embroil  us  with  Mexico. 
3 


26 

This  territory  would  be  overrun  by  adventurers;  and  the 
most  unprincipled  of  these,  the  proscribed,  the  disgraced, 
the  outcasts  of  society,  would,  of  course,  keep  always  in 
advance  of  the  better  population.  These  would  represent 
our  republic  on  the  borders  of  the  Mexican  States.  The 
history  of  the  connexion  of  such  men  with  the  Indians, 
forewarns  us  of  the  outrages,  which  would  attend  their 
contact  with  the  border  inhabitants  of  our  southern  neigh- 
bor. Texas,  from  its  remoteness  from  the  seat  of  govern- 
ment, would  be  feebly  restrained  by  the  authorities  of  the 
nation  to  which  it  would  belong.  Its  whole  early  history 
would  be  a  lesson  of  scorn  for  Mexico,  an  education  for 
invasion  of  her  soil.  Its  legislature  would  find  in  its  posi- 
tion some  color  for  stretching  to  the  utmost  the  doctrine 
of  state-sovereignty.  It  would  not  hear  unmoved  the  cries 
for  protection  and  vengeance,  which  would  break  from  the 
frontier,  from  the  very  men  whose  lawlessness  would  pro- 
voke the  cruelties  so  indignantly  denounced ;  nor  would  it 
sift  very  anxiously  the  question,  on  which  side  the  wrong 
began.  To  the  wisdom,  moderation,,  and  tender  mercies 
of  the  back-settlers  and  law-givers  of  Texas,  the  peace  of 
this  country  would  be  committed. 

Have  we  counted  the  cost  of  establishing  and  making 
perpetual  these  hostile  relations  with  Mexico?  Will  wars, 
begun  in  rapacity,  carried  on  so  far  from  the  centre  of  the 
confederation,  and,  of  consequence,  little  checked  or  con- 
trolled by  Congress,  add  strength  to  our  institutions,  or 
cement  our  union,  or  exert  a  healthy  moral  influence  on 
rulers  or  people?  What  limits  can  be  set  to  the  atrocities 
of  such  conflicts?  What  limits  to  the  treasures,  which 
must  be  lavished  on  such  distant  borders?  What  limits  to 
the  patronage  and  power,  which  such  distant  expeditions 
must  accumulate  in  the  hands  of  the  Executive  ?  Are  the 
blood  and  hard-earned  wealth  of  the  older  states  to  be 


27 

poured  out  like  watSr,  to  protect  and  revenge  a  new 
people,  whose  character  and  condition  will  plunge  them 
into  perpetual  wrongs  ? 

Is  the  time  never  to  come,  when  the  neighborhood  of  a 
more  powerful  and  civilized  people,  will  prove  a  blessing 
instead  of  a  curse  to  an  inferior  community  ?  It  was  my 
hope,  when  the  Spanish  colonies  of  this  continent  sepa- 
rated themselves  from  the  mother  country,  and,  in  admira- 
tion of  the  United  States,  adopted  republican  institutions, 
that  they  were  to  find  in  us,  friends  to  their  freedom, 
helpers  to  their  civilization.  If  ever  a  people,  were  placed 
by  Providence  in  a  condition  to  do  good  to  a  neighboring 
state,  we  of  this  country  sustained  such  a  relation  to  Mex- 
ico. That  nation,  inferior  in  science,  arts,  agriculture,  and 
legislation,  looked  to  us  with  a  generous  trust.  She  opened 
her  ports  and  territories  to  our  farmers,  mechanics,  and 
merchants.  We  might  have  conquered  her  by  the  only 
honorable  arms,  by  the  force  of  superior  intelligence,  in- 
dustry, and  morality.  We  might  silently  have  poured  in 
upon  her  our  improvements ;  and  by  the  infusion  of  our 
population  have  assimilated  her  to  ourselves.  Justice,  good- 
will, and  profitable  intercourse  might  have  cemented  a 
lasting  friendship.  And  what  is  now  the  case  ?  A  deadly 
hatred  burns  in  Mexico  towards  this  country.  No  stronger 
national  sentiment  now  binds  her  scattered  provinces  to- 
gether, than  dread  and  detestation  of  Republican  America. 
She  is  ready  to  attach  herself  to  Europe  for  defence  from 
the  United  States.  All  the  moral  power,  which  we  might 
have  gained  over  Mexico,  we  have  thrown  away;  and 
suspicion,  dread,  and  abhorrence,  have  supplanted  respect 
and  trust. 

I  am  aware  that  these  remarks  are  met  by  a  vicious  rea- 
soning, which  discredits  a  people  among  whom  it  finds 
favor.  It  is  sometimes  said,  that  nations  are  swayed  by 


28 

laws,  as  unfailing  as  those  which  govern  matter  ;  that  they 
have  their  destinies ;  that  their  character  and  position  carry 
them  forward  irresistibly  to  their  goal  ;  that  the  stationary 
Turk  must  sink  under  the  progressive  civilization  of 
Russia,  as  inevitably  as  the  crumbling  edifice  falls  to  the 
earth  ;  that,  by  a  like  necessity,  the  Indians  have  melted 
before  the  white  man,  and  the  mixed,  degraded  race  of 
Mexico  must  melt  before  the  Anglo  Saxon.  Away  with 
this  vile  sophistry.  There  is  no  necessity  for  crime. 
There  is  no  fate  to  justify  rapacious  nations,  any  more 
than  to  justify  gamblers  and  robbers,  in  plunder.  We 
boast  of  the  progress  of  society,  and  this  progress  consists 
in  the  substitution  of  reason  and  moral  principle  for  the 
sway  of  brute  force.  It  is  true,  that  more  civilized  must 
always  exert  a  great  power  over  less  civilized  commu- 
nities in  their  neighborhood.  But  it  may  and  should  be  a 
power  to  enlighten  and  improve,  not  to  crush  and  destroy. 
We  talk  of  accomplishing  our  destiny.  So  did  the  late  con- 
queror of  Europe ;  and  destiny  consigned  him  to  a  lonely 
rock  in  the  ocean,  the  prey  of  an  ambition  which  destroyed 
no  peace  but  his  own. 

Hitherto,  I  have  spoken  of  the  annexation  of  Texas  as 
embroiling  us  with  Mexico ;  but  it  will  not  stop  here.  It 
will  bring  us  into  collision  witji  other  states.  It  will,  almost 
of  necessity,  involve  us  in  hostility  with  European  powers. 
Such  are  now  the  connexions  of  nations,  that  Europe  must 
look  with  jealousy  on  a  country,  whose  ambition,  seconded 
by  vast  resources,  will  seem  to  place  within  her  grasp  the 
empire  of  the  new  world.  And  not  only  general  considera- 
tions of  this  nature,  but  the  particular  relation  of  certain 
foreign  states  to  this  continent,  must  tend  to  destroy  the 
peace  now  happily  subsisting  between  us  and  the  kingdoms 
of  Europe.  England,  in  particular,  must  watch  us  with 
suspicion,  and  cannot  but  resist  our  appropriation  of  Texas 


29 

to  ourselves.  She  has  at  once  a  moral  and  political  inter- 
est in  this  question,  which  demands,  and  will  justify  inter- 
ference. 

First,  England  has  a  moral  interest  in  this  question. 
The  annexation  of  Texas  is  sought  by  us  for  the  very  pur- 
pose of  extending  slavery,  and  thus  will  necessarily  give 
new  life  and  extension  to  the  slave  trade.  A  new  and  vast 
market  for  slaves  cannot,  of  course,  be  opened,  without 
inviting  and  obtaining  a  supply  from  abroad,  as  well  as 
from  this  country.  The  most  solemn  treaties,  and  ships 
of  war  lining  the  African  coast,  do  not,  and  cannot  sup- 
press this  infernal  traffic,  as  long  as  the  slaver,  freighted 
with  stolen,  chained,  and  wretched  captives,  can  obtain  a 
price  proportioned  to  the  peril  of  the  undertaking.  Now 
England  has  long  made  it  a  part  of  her  foreign  policy,  to 
suppress  the  slave  trade ;  and,  of  late,  a  strong  public  feel- 
ing impels  the  government  to  resist,  as  far  as  may  be,  the 
extension  of  slavery.  Can  we  expect  her  to  be  a  passive 
spectator  of  a  measure,  by  which  her  struggles  for  years  in 
the  cause  of  humanity,  and  some  of  her  strongest  national 
feelings  are  to  be  withstood? 

England  is  a  privileged  nation.  On  one  part  of  her  his- 
tory, she  can  look  with  unmixed  self-respect.  With  the 
exception  of  the  promulgation  of  Christianity,  I  know  not 
a  moral  effort  so  glorious,  as  the  long,  painful,  victorious 
struggle  of  her  philanthropists  against  that  concentration 
of  all  horrors,  cruelties,  and  crimes,  the  slave  trade.  Next 
to  this,  her  recent  emancipation  act  is  the  most  signal  ex- 
pression, afforded  by  our  times,  of  the  progress  of  civiliza- 
tion and  a  purer  Christianity.  Other  nations  have  won 
imperishable  honors  by  heroic  struggles  for  their  own 
rights.  But  there  was  wanting  the  example  of  a  nation 
espousing,  with  disinterestedness,  and  amidst  great  obsta- 
cles, the  rights  of  others,  the  rights  of  those  who  had  no 
3* 


30 

claim  but  that  of  a  common  humanity,  the  rights  of  the 
most  fallen  of  the  race.  Great  Britain,  loaded  with  an 
unprecedented  debt  and  with  a  grinding  taxation,  con- 
tracted a  new  debt  of  a  hundred  million  dollars,  to  give 
freedom,  not  to  Englishmen,  but  to  the  degraded  African. 
This  was  not  an  act  of  policy,  riot  a  work  of  statesmen. 
Parliament  but  registered  the  edict  of  the  people.  The 
English  nation,  with  one  heart  and  one  voice,  under  a 
strong  Christian  impulse,  and  without  distinction  of  rank, 
sex,  party,  or  religious  names,  decreed  freedom  to  the  slave. 
I  know  not,  that  history  records  a  national  act  so  disinter- 
ested, so  sublime.  In  the  progress  of  ages,  England's 
naval  triumphs  will  shrink  into  a  more  and  more  narrow 
space  in  the  records  of  our  race.  This  moral  triumph  will 
fill  a  broader,  brighter  page.  Is  not  England,  representing 
as  she  does  in  this  case  the  civilized  world,  authorized, 
and  even  bound  to  remonstrate  in  the  name  of  humanity 
and  religion,  against  a  measure,  by  which  the  great  work, 
for  which  she  has  so  long  toiled,  is  to  be  indefinitely 
postponed. 

But  England  has  a  political  as  well  as  moral  interest  in 
this  question.  By  the  annexation  of  Texas  we  shall  ap- 
proach her  liberated  colonies ;  we  shall  build  up  a  power 
in  her  neighborhood,  to  which  no  limits  can  be  prescribed. 
By  adding  Texas  to  our  acquisition  of  Florida,  we  shall 
do  much  toward  girdling  the  Gulf  of  Mexico ;  and  I" 
doubt  not,  that  some  of  our  politicians  will  feel,  as  if  our 
mastery  in  that  sea  were  sure.  The  .West  Indian  Archi- 
pelago, in  which  the  European  is  regarded  as  an  intruder, 
will,  of  course,  be  embraced  in  our  ever-growing  scheme  of 
empire.  In  truth,  collision  with  the  West  Indies  will  be  the 
most  certain  effect  of  the  extension  of  our  power  in  that 
quarter.  The  example,  which  they  exhibit,  of  African  free- 
dom, of  the  elevation  of  the  colored  race  to  the  rights  of  men, 


31 

is  of  all  influences  most  menacing  to  slavery  at  the  South. 
It  must  grow  continually  more  perilous.  These  islands,  un- 
less interfered  with  from  abroad,  seem  destined  to  be  nurse- 
ries of  civilization  and  freedom  to  the  African  race.  The 
white  race  must  melt  more  and  more  before  the  colored,  if 
both  are  left  to  free  competition.  The  Europeans,  unnerved 
by  the  climate,  and  forming  but  a  handful  of  the  popula- 
tion, cannot  stand  before  the  African,  who  revels  in  the 
heat  of  the  tropics,  and  is  to  develope  under  it  all  his  ener- 
gies. Will  a  slaveholding  people,  spreading  along  the 
shores  of  the  Mexican  Gulf,  cultivate  friendly  sentiments 
towards  communities,  whose  whole  history  will  be  a  bitter 
reproach  to  their  institutions,  a  witness  against  their 
wrongs,  and  whose  ardent  sympathies  will  be  enlisted  in 
the  cause  of  the  slave?  Cruel,  ferocious  conflicts  must 
growfrom  this  neighborhood  of  hostile  principles,  of  com- 
munities regarding  one  another  with  unextinguis-hable 
hatred.  All  the  islands  of  the  Archipelago  will  have  cause 
to  dread  our  power ;  but  none  so  much  as  the  emancipated. 
Is  it  not  more  than  possible,  that  wars,  having  for  an  object 
the  subjugation  of  the  colored  race,  the  destruction  of  this 
tempting  example  of  freedom,  should  spring  from  the  pro- 
posed extension  of  our  dominion  along  the  Mexican  Gulf? 
Can  England  view  our  encroachments  without  alarm  ?  I 
know  it  is  thought,  that,  staggering,  as  she  does,  under  her 
enormous  debt,  she  will  be  slow  to  engage  in  war.  But 
other  nations  of  Europe  have  islands  in  the  same  neighbor- 
hood, to  induce  them  to  make  common  cause  with  her. 
Other  nations  look  with  jealousy  on  our  peculiar  institu- 
tions and  our  growing  maritime  power.  Other  nations 
are  unwilling,  that  we  should  engross  or  control  the  whole 
commerce  of  the  Mexican  Gulf.  We  ought  to  remem- 
ber, that  this  jealousy  is  sanctioned  by  our  own  example. 
It  is  understood,  that,  at  one  period  of  the  internal  disor- 


32 

ders  of  Spain,  which  rendered  all  her  foreign  possessions 
insecure,  we  sought  from  France  and  Great  Britain  assur- 
ances that  they,  would  not  possess  themselves  of  Cuba. 
Still  more,  after  the  revolt  of  her  colonies  from  Spain,  and 
after  our  recognition  of  their  independence,  it  was 
announced  to  the  nations  of  Europe,  in  the  mes- 
sage of  the  president,  that  we  should  regard"  as  hos- 
tile, any  interference,  on  their  part,  with  these  new 
governments,  "  for  the  purpose  of  oppressing  them,  or 
controlling  their  destiny  in  any  other  way."  I,  of  course, 
have  no  communication  with  foreign  cabinets;  but  I  can- 
not doubt  that  Great  Britain  has  remonstrated  against 
the  annexation  of  Texas  to  this  country.  An  English 
minister  would  be  unworthy  of  his  office,  who  should 
see  another  state  greedily  swallowing  up  territories  in  the 
neighborhood  of  British  colonies,  and  not  strive,  by  all  just 
means,  to  avert  the  danger.  I  have  just  referred  to  the 
warning  given  by  us  to  the  powers  of  Europe,  to  abstain 
from  appropriating  to  themselves  the  colonies  torn  from 
Spain.  How  will  Europe  interpret  our  act,  if  we  now  seize 
Texas  and  take  this  stride  towards  Mexico  ?  Will  she  not 
suspect,  that  we  purposed  to  drive  away  the  older  vultures, 
in  order  to  keep  the  victim  to  ourselves  ;  that,  conscious  of 
growing  power,  we  foresaw,  in  the  exclusion  of  foreign  states, 
the  sure  extension  of  our  own  dominion  over  the  new  world? 
Can  we  expect  those  powers,  with  such  an  example  before 
them,  to  heed  our  warning?  Will  they  look  patiently  on, 
and  see  the  young  vulture  feasting  on  the  nearest  prey,  and 
fleshing  itself  for  the  spoils  which  their  own  near  posses- 
sions will  soon  present  ?  Will  it  be  strange,  if  hunger  for 
a  share  of  the  plunder,  as  well  as  the  principle  of  self  de- 
fence, should  make  this  continent  the  object  of  their 
policy  to  an  extent  we  have  never  dreamed  ? 


33 

It  is  of  great  and  manifest  importance,  that  we  should 
use  every  just  means  to  separate  this  continent  from  the 
politics  of  Europe,  that  we  should  prevent,  as  far  as  pos- 
sible, all  connexion,  except  commercial,  between  the  old  and 
the  new  world,  that  we  should  give  to  foreign  states  no 
occasion  or  pretext  for  insinuating  themselves  into  our 
affairs.  For  this  end,  we  should  maintain  towards  our  sister 
republics  a  more  liberal  policy  than  was  ever  adopted  by 
nation  towards  nation.  We  should  strive  to  appease  their 
internal  divisions,  and  to  reconcile  them  to  each  other.  We 
should  even  make  sacrifices  to  build  up  their  strength. 
Weak  and  divided,  they  cannot  but  lean  on  foreign  sup- 
port. No  pains  should  be  spared  to  prevent  or  allay  the 
jealousies,  which  the  great  superiority  of  this  country  is 
suited  to  awaken.  By  an  opposite  policy  we  shall  favor 
foreign  interference.  By  encroaching  on  Mexico,  we  shall 
throw  her  into  the  arms  of  European  States,  shall  compel 
her  to  seek  defence  in  transatlantic  alliance.  How  plain  is 
it,  that  alliance  with  Mexico  will  be  hostility  to  the  United 
States,  that  her  defenders  will  repay  themselves  by  making 
her  subservient  to  their  views,  that  they  will  thus  strike 
root  in  her  soil,  monopolize  her  trade  and  control  her  re- 
sources. And  with  what  face  can  we  resist  the  aggressions 
of  others  on  our  neighbor,  if  we  give  an  example  of  aggres- 
sion ?  Still  more,  if  by  our  advances  we  put  the  colonies 
of  England  in  new  peril,  with  what  face  can  we  oppose  her 
occupation  of  Cuba?  Suppose  her,  with  that  magnificent 
Island  in  her  hands,  to  command  the  Mexican  Gulf  and 
the  mouths  of  the  Mississippi.  Will  the  Western  States 
find  compensation  for  this  formidable  neighborhood,  in 
the  privilege  of  flooding  Texas  with  slaves? 

Thus,  wars  with  Europe  and  Mexico  are  to  be  entailed 
on  us  by  the  annexation  of  Texas.  And  is  war  the  policy 
by  which  this  country  is  to  flourish  ?  Was  it  for  inter- 
minable conflicts  that  we  formed  our  Union?  Is  it  blood, 


34 

shed  for  plunder,  which  is  to  consolidate  our  institutions  ? 
Is  it  by  collision  with  the  greatest  maritime  power,  that 
our  commerce  is  to  gain  strength?  Is  it  by  arming  against 
ourselves  the  moral  sentiments  of  the  world,  that  we  are  to 
build  up  national  honor  ?  Must  we  of  the  North  buckle 
on  our  armor,  to  fight  the  battles  of  slavery ;  to  fight  for  a 
possession,  which  our  moral  principles  and  just  jealousy 
forbid  us  to  incorporate  with  our  confederacy?  In  attach- 
ing Texas  to  ourselves,  we  provoke  hostilities,  and  at  the 
same  time  expose  new  points  of  attack  to  our  foes.  Vul- 
nerable at  so  many  points,  we  shall  need  a  vast  military 
force.  Great  armies  will  require  great  revenues,  and  raise 
up  great  chieftains.  Are  we  tired  of  freedom,  that  we  are 
prepared  to  place  it  under  such  guardians  ?  Is  the  republic 
bent  on  dying  by  its  own  hands?  Does  not  every  man 
feel,  that,  with  war  for  our  habit,  our  institutions  can- 
not be  preserved?  If  ever  a  country  were  bound  to 
peace,  it  is  this.  Peace  is  our  great  interest.  In  peace 
our  resources  are  to  be  developed,  the  true  interpre- 
tation of  the  constitution  to  be  established,  and  the  inter- 
fering claims  of  liberty  and  order  to  be  adjusted.  In  peace 
we  are  to  discharge  our  great  debt  to  the  human  race,  and 
to  diffuse  freedom  by  manifesting  its  fruits.  A  country  has 
no  right  to  adopt  a  policy,  however  gainful,  which,  as  it 
may  foresee,  will  determine  it  to  a  career  of  war.  A  na- 
tion, like  an  individual,  is  bound  to  seek  even  by  sacrifices 
a  position,  which  will  favor  peace,  justice,  and  the  exercise 
of  a  beneficent  influence  on  the  world.  A  nation,  provok- 
ing war  by  cupidity,  by  encroachment,  and  above  all  by 
efforts  to  propagate  the  curse  of  slavery,  is  alike  false  to 
itself,  to  God,  and  to  the  human  race. 

III.  I  proceed  now  to  a  consideration  of  what  is  to  me 
the  strongest  argument  against  annexing  Texas  to  the 
United  States.  This  measure  will  extend  and  perpetuate 


35 

slavery.  I  have  necessarily  glanced  at  this  topic  in  the 
preceding  pages;  but  it  deserves  to  be  brought  out  dis- 
tinctly. I  shall  speak  calmly,  but  I  must  speak  earnestly; 
and  I  feel  and  rejoice  to  feel,  that,  however  you  may  differ 
from  some  of  my  views,  yet  we  do  not  differ  as  to  the  great 
principle  on  which  all  my  remarks  and  remonstrances  are 
founded.  Slavery  seems  to  you  as  to  me  an  evil  and  a 
wrong.  Your  language  on  this  subject  has  given  me  a 
satisfaction,  for  which  I  owe  you  thanks ;  and  if  in  what  I 
am  now  to  say,  I  may  use  expressions  which  you  may  think 
too  strong,  I  am  sure  your  candor  will  recognise  in  them 
the  signs  of  deep  conviction,  and  will  acquit  me  of  all  de- 
sire to  irritate  or  give  pain. 

The  annexation  of  Texas,  I  have  said,  will  extend  and 
perpetuate  slavery.  It  is  fitted  and  still  more  intended  to 
do  so.  On  this  point  there  can  be  no  doubt.  As  far  back 
as  the  year  1829,  the  annexation  of  Texas  was  agitated  in 
the  Southern  and  Western  States  ;  and  it  was  urged  on  the 
ground  of  the  strength  and  extension  it  would  give  to  the 
slaveholding  interest.  In  a  series  of  essays  ascribed  to  a 
gentleman,  now  a  senator  in  Congress,  it  was  maintained, 
that  five  or  six  slaveholding  states  would  by  this  measure 
be  added  to  the  Union  ;  and  he  even  intimated  that  as 
many  as  nine  states  as  large  as  Kentucky  might  be  formed 
within  the  limits  of  Texas.  In  Virginia,  about  the  same 
time,  calculations  were  made  as  to  the  increased  value 
which  would  thus  be  given  to  slaves,  and  it  was  even  said, 
that  this  acquisition  would  raise  the  price  fifty  per  cent. 
Of  late  the  language  on  this  subject  is  most  explicit.  The 
great  argument  for  annexing  Texas  is,  that  it  will  strengthen 
"the  peculiar  institutions  "  of  the  South,  and  open  a  new 
and  vast  field  for  slavery. 

By  this  act,  slavery  will  be  spread  over  regions  to  which 
it  is  now  impossible  to  set  limits.     Texas,  I   repeat   it,  is. 


36 

but  the  first  step  of  aggressions.  I  trust,  indeed,  that  Provi- 
dence will  beat  back  and  humble  our  cupidity  and  ambi- 
tion. But  one  guilty  success  is  often  suffered  to  be 
crowned,  as  men  call  it,  with  greater  ;  in  order  that  a  more 
awful  retribution  may  at  length  vindicate  the  justice  of 
God,  and  the  rights  of  the  oppressed.  Texas,  smitten  with 
slavery,  will  spread  the  infection  beyond  herself.  We  know 
that  the  tropical  regions  have  been  found  most  propitious 
to  this  pestilence;  nor  can  we  promise  ourselves,  that  its 
expulsion  from  them  for  a  season  forbids  its  return.  By 
annexing  Texas,  we  may  send  this  scourge  to  a  distance, 
which,  if  now  revealed,  would  appal  us,  and  through  these 
vast  regions  every  cry  of  the  injured  will  invoke  wrath 
on  our  heads. 

By  this  act,  slavery  will  be  perpetuated  in  the  old  states 
as  well  as  spread  over  new.  It  is  well  known,  that  the  soil 
of  some  of  the  old  states  has  become  exhausted  by  slave 
cultivation.  Their  neighborhood  to  communities,  which 
are  flourishing  under  free  labor,  forces  on  them  perpetual 
arguments  for  adopting  this  better  system.  They  now  ad- 
here to  slavery,  not  on  account  of  the  wealth  which  it 
extracts  from  the  soil^  but  because  it  furnishes  men  and 
women  to  ,be  sold  in  newly  settled  arid  more  southern  dis- 
tricts. It  is  by  slave  breeding  and  slave  selling  that  these 
states  subsist.  Take  away  from  them  a  foreign  market, 
and  slavery  would  die.  Of  consequence,  by  opening  a  new 
market,  it  is  prolonged  and  invigorated.  By  annexing 
Texas,  we  shall  not  only  create  it  where  it  does  not  exist, 
but  breathe  new  life  into  it,  where  its  end  seemed  to  be 
near.  States,  which  might  and  ought  to  throw  it  off,  will 
make  the  multiplication  of  slaves  their  great  aim  and  chief 
resource. 

Nor  is  the  worst  told.  As  I  have  before  intimated,  and 
it  cannot  be  too  often  repeated,  we  shall  not  only  quicken 


37 

the  domestic  slave  trade ;  we  shall  give  a  new  impulse  to 
the  foreign.  This  indeed  we^have  pronounced  in  our  laws 
to  be  felony  ;  but  we  make  our  laws  cobwebs,  when  we 
offer  to  rapacious  men  strong  motives  for  their  violation. 
Open  a  market  for  slaves  in  an  unsettled  country,  with  a 
sweep  of  sea-coast,  and  at  such  a  distance  from  the  seat  of 
government  that  laws  may  be  evaded  with  impunity,  and  how 
can  you  exclude  slaves  from  Africa?  It  is  well  known  that 
cargoes  have  been  landed  in  Louisiana.  What  is  to  drive 
them  from  Texas?  In  incorporating  this  region  with  the 
Union  to  make  it  a  slave  country,  we  send  the  kidnapper 
to  prowl  through  the  jungles,  and  to  dart,  like  a  beast  of 
prey,  on  the  defenceless  villages  of  Africa.  We  chain  the 
helpless  despairing  victims  ;  crowd  them  into  the  fetid, 
pestilential  slave  ship ;  expose  them  to  the  unutterable 
cruelties  of  the  middle  passage,  and,  if  they  survive  it, 
crush  them  with  perpetual  bondage. 

I  now  ask,  whether  as  a  people,  we  are  prepared  to  seize 
on  a  neighboring  territory  for  the  end  of  extending  slavery? 
I  ask,  wh*ether,  as  a  people,  we  can  stand  forth  in  the  sight 
of  God,  in  the  sight  of  the  nations,  and  adopt  this  atrocious 
policy  ?  Sooner  perish  !  Sooner  be  our  name  blotted  out 
from  the  record  of  nations  ! 

This  is  no  place  for  entering  into  the  argument  against 
slavery.  I  have  elsewhere  given  my  views  of  it.  In  truth, 
no  argument  is  needed.  The  evil  of  slavery  speaks  for 
itself.  It  is  one  of  those  primary,  intuitive  truths,  which 
need  only  a  fair  exhibition  to  be  immediately  received. 
To  state,  is  to  condemn  this  institution.  The  choice  which 
every  freeman  makes  of  death  for  his  child  and  for  every 
thing  he  loves,  in  preference  to  slavery,  shows  what  it  is. 
The  single  consideration,  that,  by  slavery,  one  human  being 
is  placed  powerless  and  defenceless  in  the  hands  of  another, 
to  be  driven  to  whatever  labor  that  other  may  impose,  to 
4 


38 

suffer  whatever  punishment  he  may  inflict,  to  live  as  his 
tool,  the  instrument  of  his  j>leasure,  this  is  all  that  is 
needed,  to  satisfy  such  as  know  the  human  heart  and  its 
unfitness  for  irresponsible  power,  that,  of  all  conditions, 
slavery  is  the  most  hostile  to  the  dignity,  self-respect,  im- 
provement, rights,  and  happiness  of  human  beings.  Is  it 
within  the  bounds  of  credibility,  that  a  people,  boasting  of 
freedom,  of  civilization,  of  Christianity,  should  syste- 
matically strive  to  spread  this  calamity  over  the  earth  ? 

To  perpetuate  and  extend  slavery  is  not  now,  in  a  moral 
point  of  view,  what  it  once  was.  We  cannot  shelter  our- 
selves under  the  errors  and  usages  of  our  times.  We  do 
not  belong  to  the  dark  ages,  or  to  heathenism.  We  have 
not  grown  up  under  the  prejudices  of  a  blinding,  crushing 
tyranny.  We  live  under  free  institutions  and  under  the 
broad  light  of  Christianity.  Every  principle  of  our  govern- 
ment and  religion  condemns  slavery.  The  spirit  of  our  age 
condemns  it.  The  decree  of  the  civilized  world  has  gone 
out  against  it.  England  has  abolished  it.  France  and 
Denmark  meditate  its  abolition.  The  chain  is  falling  from 
the  serf  in  Russia.  In  the  whole  circuit  of  civilized  na- 
tions, with  the  single  exception  of  the  United  States, 
not  a  voice  is  lifted  up  in  defence  of  slavery.  All 
the  great  names  in  legislation  and  religion  are  against  it. 
The  most  enduring  reputations  of  our  times  have  been  won 
by  resisting  it.  Recal  the  great  men  of  this  and  the  last 
generation,  and  be  they  philosophers,  philanthropists,  poets, 
economists,  statesmen,  jurists,  all  swell  the  reprobation  of 
slavery.  The  leaders  of  opposing  religious  sects,  Wesley, 
the  patriarch  of  Methodism,  Edwards  and  Hopkins, 
pillars  of  Calvinism,  join  as  brothers  in  one  solemn  testi- 
mony against  slavery.  And  is  this  an  age  in  which  a  free 
and  Christian  people  shall  deliberately  resolve  to  extend 
and  perpetuate  the  evil  1  In  so  doing,  we  cut  ourselves  off 


39 

from  the  communion  of  the  nations.  We  sink  below  the 
civilization  of  our  age.  We  invite  the  scorn,  indignation, 
and  abhorrence  of  the  world. 

Let  it  not  be  said,  that  this  opposition  of  our  times  to 
slavery  is  an  accident,  a  temporary  gust  of  opinion,  an 
eddy  in  the  current  of  human  thought,  a  fashion  to  pass 
away  with  the  present  actors  on  the  stage.  He,  who  so 
says,  must  have  read  history  with  a  superficial  eye,  and  is 
strangely  blind  to  the  deepest  and  most  powerful  influences 
which  are  moulding  society.  Christianity  has  done  more 
than  all  things  to  determine  the  character  and  direction  of 
our  present  civilization ;  and  who  can  question  or  overlook 
the  tendency  and  design  of  this  religion  ?  Christianity  has 
no  plainer  purpose,  than  to  unite  all  men  as  brethren,  to 
make  man  unutterably  dear  to  man,  to  pour  contempt  on 
outward  distinctions,  to  raise  the  fallen,  to  league  all  in 
efforts  for  the  elevation  of  all.  Under  its  influence, 
the  differences  of  nations  and  rank  are  softening.  To 
the  establishment  of  a  fraternal  relation  among  men,  the 
science,  literature,  commerce,  education  of  the  Chris- 
tian world  are  tending.  Who  cannot  see  this  mighty 
movement  of  Providence  ?  Who  is  so  blind  as  to  call  it  a 
temporary  impulse  ?  Who  so  daring,  so  impious,  as  to 
strive  to  arrest  it  ? 

What  is  the  tendency  of  all  governments  in  the  Christian 
world  ?  To  secure  more  and  more  to  every  man  his  rights, 
be  his  condition  what  it  may.  Even  in  despotisms,  where 
political  rights  are  denied,  private  rights  are  held  more  and 
more  sacred.  The  absolute  monarch  is  more  and  more 
anxious  to  improve  the  laws  of  the  state,  and  to  extend 
their  protection  and  restraints  over  all  classes  and  indi- 
viduals without  distinction.  Equality  before  the  law,  is  the 
maxim  of  the  civilized  world.  To  place  the  rights  of  a 
large  part  of  the  community  beyond  the  protection  of  law, 


40 

to  place  half  a  people  under  private,  irresponsible  power, 
is  to  oppose  one  of  the  most  characteristic  and  glorious 
tendencies  of  modern  times.  Who  has  the  courage  to  set 
down  this  reverence  for  private  rights  among  the  fashions 
and  caprices  of  the  day  ?  Is  it  not  founded  in  everlasting 
truth  ?  and  dare  we,  in  the  face  of  it,  extend  and  perpetuate 
an  institution,  the  grand  feature  of  which  is,  that  it  tram- 
ples private  rights  in  the  dust  ? 

Whoever  studies  modern  history  with  any  care,  must 
discern  in  it  a  steady  growing  movement  towards  one  most 
interesting  result,  I  mean,  towards  the  elevation  of  the 
laboring  class  of  society.  This  is  not  a  recent,  accidental 
turn  of  human  affairs.  We  can  trace  its  beo-innino-  in  the 

O  C? 

feudal  times,  and  its  slow  advances  in  subsequent  periods, 
until  it  has  become  the  master  movement  of  our  age.  Is 
it  not  plain,  that  those  who  toil  with  their  hands,  and 
whose  productive  industry  is  the  spring  of  all  wealth,  are 
rising  from  the  condition  of  beasts  of  burden,  to  which 
they  were  once  reduced ;  to  the  consciousness,  intelligence, 
self-respect,  and  proper  happiness  of  men?  Is  it  not  the 
strong  tendency  of  our  times  to  diffuse  among  the  many 
the  improvements  once  confined  to  the  few  ?  He  who  over- 
looks this  has  no  comprehension  of  the  great  work  of 
Providence,  or  of  the  most  signal  feature  of  his  times ;  and 
is  this  an  age  for  efforts  to  extend  and  perpetuate  an  insti- 
tution, the  very  object  of  which  is  to  keep  down  the  laborer, 
and  to  make  him  a  machine  for  another's  gratification  ? 

I  know  it  has  been  said  in  reply  to  such  views,  that,  do 
what  we  will  with  the  laborer,  call  him  what  we  will,  he  is 
and  must  be  in  reality,  a  slave.  The  doctrine  has  been 
published  at  the  South,  that  nature  has  made  two 
classes,  the  rich  and  the  poor,  the  employer  and  the  em- 
ployed, the  capitalist  and  the  operative,  and  that  the  class 
who  work,  are  to  all  intents,  slaves  to  those  in  whose  service 


41 

they  are  engaged.     In  a  report  on  the  mail,  recently  offered 
to  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,   an  effort  was  made  to 
establish  resemblances  between  slavery  and  the  condition  of 
free  laborers,  for  the  obvious  purpose  of  showing,   that  the 
shades   of   difference   between    them   are  not   very  strong. 
Is  it  possible  that  such   reasonings   escaped   from  a  man, 
who  has  trod   the   soil   of   New   England,    and   was   edu- 
cated   at   one  -of   her   colleges  ?     Whom   did   he    meet  at 
that   college?      The    sons    of    her   laborers,    young    men, 
whose    hands    had    been    hardened    at    the    plough.      Does 
he    not    know,    that    the    families    of   laborers   have    fur- 
nished every  department  in   life   among  us  with  illustrious 
men,  have  furnished  our  heroes  in  war,   our  statesmen  in 
council,  our  orators  in  the  pulpit  and   at  the   bar,  our  mer- 
chants whose  enterprises  embrace  the  whole  earth?     What! 
the  laborer  of  the  free  state  a  slave,  and  to  be  ranked  with 
the  despised  negro,  whom  the  lash  drives  to  toil,  and   whose 
dearest  rights  are  at  the  mercy  of  irresponsible  power  !    If 
there  be  a  firm  independent  spirit  on  earth,  it  is  to  be  found 
in  the  man,  who  tills  the  fields  of  the  free   states,    and  mois- 
tens them  with  the  sweat  of  his  brow.     I   recently  heard  of 
a  visitor  from  the  South,  compassionating  the  operatives  of 
our  manufactories,  as  in  a  worse   condition  than  the  slave. 
What  carries  the  young  woman  to  the   manufactory  ?     Not 
generally  the  want  of  a   comfortable  home;  but  sometimes 
the   desire    of  supplying   herself  with   a    wardrobe,   which 
ought  to  satisfy  the   affluent,  and  oftener  ihe  desire  of  fur- 
nishing in  more  than  decent  style  the  home,  where  she  is  to 
sustain  the  nearest  relations,    and  perform  the   most  sacred 
duties   of  life.     Generally  speaking,   each  of  these  young 
women  has  her  plan  of  life,  her  hopes,   her  bright  dreams, 
her  spring   of  action  in  her  own   free-will,   and  amidst  toil 
she  contrives  to  find  seasons   for  intellectual  and  religious 
culture.     It  is  common  in  New  England  for  the  sons  of 
^  ,-  v  oq*  ei  li 


42 

farmers  to  repair  to  the  large  towns,  and  there  to  establish 
themselves  as  domestics  in  families,  a  condition  which  the 
South  will  be  peculiarly  disposed  to  identify  with  slavery. 
But  what  brings  these  young  men  to  the  city  ?  The  hope  of 
earning  in  a  shorter  time  a  sum,  with  which  to  purchase  a 
farm  at  home  or  in  the  West,  perhaps  to  become  traders  ; 
and  in  these  vocations  they  not  unfrequently  rise  to  consid- 
eration, and  to  what,  in  their  places  of  residence,  is  called 
wealth.  I  have  in  my  thoughts  an  individual  distinguished 
alike  by  vigor  and  elevation  of  mind,  who  began  life  by  hiring 
himself  as  a  laborer  to  a  farmer,  and  then  entered  a  family  as 
a  domestic ;  and  now  he  is  the  honored  associate  of  the  most 
enlightened  men,  and  devotes  himself  to  the  highest  subjects 
of  human  thought.  It  is  true,  that  much  remains  to  be  done 
for  the  laboring  class  in  the  most  favored  regions ;  but  the  in- 
telligence already  spread  through  this  class,  is  an  earnest  of 
a  brighter  day,  of  the  most  glorious  revolution  in  history,  of 
the  elevation  of  the  mass  of  men  to  the  dignity  of  human 
beings. 

It  is  the  great  mission  of  this  country,  to  forward  this 
revolution,  and  never  was  a  sublimer  work  committed  to  a 
nation.  Our  mission  is  to  elevate  society  through  all  its 
conditions,  to  secure  to  every  human  being  the  means  of 
progress,  to  substitute  the  government  of  equal  laws  for  that 
of  irresponsible  individuals,  to  prove  that,  under  popular  in- 
stitutions, the  people  may  be  carried  forward,  that  the  multi- 
tude who  toil  are  capable  of  enjoying  the  noblest  blessings 
of  the  social  state.  The  prejudice,  that  labor  is  a  degrada- 
tion, one  of  the  worst  prejudices  handed  down  from  barba- 
rous ages,  is  to  receive  here,  a  practical  refutation.  The 
power  of  liberty  to  raise  up  the  whole  people,  this  is  the 
great  Idea,  on  which  our  institutions  rest,  and  which  is  to 
be  wrought  out  in  our  history.  Shall  a  nation  having  such 
a  mission  abjure  it,  and  even  fight  against  the  progress  which 
it  is  specially  called  to  promote. 


43 

The  annexation  of  Texas,  if  it  should  be  accomplished, 
would  do  much  to  determine  the  future  history  and  charac- 
ter of  this  country.  It  is  one  of  those  measures,  which  call 
a  nation  to  pause,  reflect,  look -forward,  because  their  force 
is  not  soon  exhausted.  Many  acts  of  government,  intensely 
exciting  at  the  moment,  are  yet  of  little  importance,  because 
their  influence  is  too  transient  to  leave  a  trace  on  history. 
A  bad  administration  may  impoverish  a  people  at  home,  or 
cripple  its  energies  abroad,  for  a  year  or  more.  But  such 
wounds  heal  soon.  A  young  people  soon  recruits  its  powers, 
and  starts  forward  with  increased  impulse,  after  the  momen- 
tary suspension  of  its  activity.  The  chief  interest  of  a 
people  lies  in  measures,  which,  making,  perhaps,  little  noise, 
go  far  to  fix  its  character,  to  determine  its  policy  and  fate 
for  ages,  to  decide  its  rank  among  nations.  A  fearful  respon- 
sibility rests  on  those  who  originate  or  control  these  pregnant 
acts.  The  destiny  of  millions  is  in  their  hands.  The 
execration  of  millions  may  fall  on  their  heads.  Long  after 
present  excitements  shall  have  passed  away,  long  after 
they  and  their  generation  shall  have  vanished  from  the 
earth,  the  fruits  of  their  agency  will  be  reaped.  Such  a 
measure  is  that  of  which  I  now  write.  It  will  commit  us  to 
a  degrading  policy,  the  issues  of  which  lie  beyond  human 
foresight.  In  opening  to  ourselves  vast  regions,  through 
which  we  may  spread  slavery,  and  in  spreading  it  for  this, 
among  other  ends,  that  the  slaveholding  states  may  bear  rule 
in  the  national  councils,  we  make  slavery  the  predominant 
interest  of  the  state.  We  make  it  the  basis  of  power,  the 
spring  or  guide  of  public  measures,  the  object  for  which  the 
revenues,  strength,  and  wealth  of  the  country,  are  to  be  ex- 
hausted. Slavery  will  be  branded  on  our  front,  as  the  great 
Idea,  the  prominent  feature  of  the  country.  We  shall  re- 
nounce our  high  calling  as  a  people,  and  accomplish  the 
lowest  destiny  to  which  a  nation  can  be  bound. 


44 

And  are  we  prepared  for  this  degradation  ?  Are  we  pre- 
pared to  couple  with  the  name  of  our  country  the  infamy 
of  deliberately  spreading  slavery  ?  and  especially  of  spread- 
ing it  through  regions  from-  which  the  wise  and  humane 
legislation  of  a  neighboring  republic  had  excluded  it?  We 
call  Mexico  a  semi-barbarious  people  ;  and  yet  we  talk  of 
planting  slavery  where  Mexico  would  not  suffer  it  to  live. 
What  American  will  not  blush  to  lift  his  head  in  Europe, 
if  this  disgrace  shall  be  fastened  on  his  country  1  Let  other 
calamities,  if  God  so  will,  come  on  us.  Let  us  be  steeped 
in  poverty.  Let  pestilence  stalk  through  our  land.  Let  famine 
thin  our  population.  Let  the  world  join  hands  against  our 
free  institutions,  and  deluge  our  shores  with  blood.  All  this 
can  be  endured.  A  few  years  of  industry  and  peace  will 
recruit  our  wasted  numbers,  and  spread  fruitfulness  over  our 
desolated  fields.  But  a  nation  devoting  itself  to  the  work  of 
spreading  and  perpetuating  slavery,  stamps  itself  with  a 
guilt  and  shame,  which  generations  may  not  be  able  to 
efface.  The  plea  on  which  we  have  rested,  that  slavery  was 
not  our  choice,  but  a  sad  necessity  bequeathed  us  by  our 
fathers,  will  avail  us  no  longer.  The  whole  guilt  will  be 
assumed  by  ourselves. 

It  is  very  lamentable,  that  among  the  distinguished  men 
of  the  South,  any  should  be  found  so  wanting  to  their  own 
fame,  as  to  become  advocates  of  slavery.  That  vulgar 
politicians,  who  look  only  at  the  interests  of  the  day  and  the 
chances  of  the  next  election,  should  swell  the  madness  of 
the  passions,  by  which  they  hope  to  rise,  is  a  thing  of  course. 
But  that  men,  who  might  leave  honorable  and  enduring 
record  of  themselves  in  their  country's  history,  who  might 
associate  their  names  with  their  country's  progress,  and  who 
are  solemnly  bound  by  their  high  gifts  to  direct  and  purify 
public  sentiment,  that  such  men  should  lend  their  great 
powers  to  the  extension  of  slavery,  is  among  the  dark  symp- 


45 

toms  of  the  times.  Can  such  men  be  satisfied  with  the  sym- 
pathies and  shouts  of  the  little  circle  around  them,  and  of  the 
passing  moment?  Have  they  nothing  of  that  prophetic  in- 
stinct, by  which  truly  great  men  read  the  future  ?  Can 
they  learn  nothing  from  the  sentence  now  passed  on  men, 
who,  fifty  years  ago,  defended  the  slave  trade  1  We  have  to 
rejoice,  Sir,  that  you,  amidst  the  excitements  of  the  time, 
have  always  given  your  testimony  against  slavery.  You  have 
adhered  to  the  doctrine,  which  the  great  men  of  the  South 
of  the  last  generation  asserted,  that  it  is  a  great  evil.  We 
shall  not  forget  this  among  the  good  services,  which  you 
have  rendered  to  your  country. 

I  have  expressed  my  fears,  that  by  the  annexation  of 
Texas,  slavery  is  to  be  continued  and  extended.  But  I 
wish  not  to  be  understood,  as  having  the  slightest  doubt 
as  to  the  approaching  fall  of  the  institution.  It  may  be 
prolonged  to  our  reproach  and  greater  ultimate  suffering. 
But  fall  it  will  and  must.  This,  Sir,  you  know,  and  I  doubt 
not,  rejoice  to  know.  The  advocates  of  slavery  must  not 
imagine,  that  to  carry  a  vote  is  to  sustain  their  cause. 
With  all  their  power,  they  cannot  withstand  the  provi- 
dence of  God,  the  principles  of  human  nature,  the  desti- 
nies of  the  race.  To  succeed,  they  must  roll  back  time 
to  the  dark  ages,  must  send  back  Luther  to  the  cell  of  his 
monastery,  must  extinguish  the  growing  light  of  Christianity 
and  moral  science,  must  blot  out  the  declaration  of  Ameri- 
can Independence.  The  fall  of  slavery  is  as  sure  as  the 
descent  of  your  own  Ohio.  Moral  laws  are  as  irresistible 
as  physical.  In  the  most  enlightened  countries  of  Europe, 
a  man  would  forfeit  his  place  in  society,  by  vindicating 
slavery.  The  slaveholder  must  not  imagine,  that  he  has 
nothing  to  do  but  fight  with  a  few  societies.  These,  of 
themselves,  are  nothing.  He  should  not  waste  on  them 
one  fear.  They  are  strong,  only  as  representing  the  spirit  of 


46 

the  Christian  and  civilized  world.  His  battle  is  with  the 
laws  of  human  nature  and  the  irresistible  tendencies  of 
human  affairs.  These  are  not  to  be  withstood  by  artful 
strokes  of  policy,  or  by  daring  crimes.  The  world  is  against 
him,  and  the  world's  Maker.  Every  day  the  sympathies  of 
the  world  are  forsaking  him.  Can  he  hope  to  sustain 
slavery  against  the  moral  feeling,  the  solemn  sentence  of  the 
human  race  1 

The  South,  cut  off  by  its  "peculiar  institutions"  from 
close  connexion  with  other  communities,  comprehends  little 
the  progress  of  the  civilized  world.  The  spirit,  which  is 
spreading  through  other  communities,  finds  no  organ  within 
its  borders,  and  the  strength  of  this  is  therefore  little  under- 
stood. Hence,  it  looks  on  anti-slavery  movements  in  any 
part  of  the  country,  as  an  accident,  which  a  little  force  can 
put  down.  It  might  as  well  think  of  imprisoning  the  winds. 
The  South  is  ignorant  of  what  it  most  needs  to  know.  A 
very  intelligent  gentleman  from  that  quarter,  told  me  not 
long  ago,  that  he  could  not  learn  at  home  the  working  of 
Emancipation  in  the  West  Indies,  so  that  an  experiment  of 
infinite  interest  to  the  slaveholder  is  going  on  at  his  door, 
and  he  knows  little  more  of  it  than  if  it  were  occurring  in 
another  planet.  Of  course,  there  are  exceptions.  There 
are  at  the  South  philosophical  observers  of  the  progress  of 
human  affairs.  But  in  such  a  state  of  society,  it  is  hard  to 
realize  the  truth  on  this  subject.  Were  it  known,  the  pro- 
ject of  building  a  power  on  the  diffusion  of  slavery,  would 
seem  to  be  an  act  of  madness,  as  truly  as  of  crime. 

I  suppose,  that  I  shall  be  charged  with  unfriendly  feelings 
towards  the  South.  All  such  I  disclaim.  Strange  as  it  may 
seem,  if  I  have  partialities,  they  are  rather  for  the  South. 
I  spent  a  part  of  my  early  life  in  that  region,  when  manners 
probably  retained  more  of  their  primitive  character,  than 
they  now  do;  and  to  a  young  man,  unaccustomed  to  life  and 


47 

its  perils,  there  was  something  singularly  captivating  in  the 
unbounded  hospitality,  the  impulsive  generosity,  the  careless- 
ness of  the  future,  the  frank,  open  manners,  the  buoyant 
spirit  and  courage,  which  marked  the  people;  and  though 
I  have  since  learned  to  interpret  more  wisely  what  I  then 
saw,  still  the  impressions  which  I  then  received,  and  the 
friendships  formed  at  a  yet  earlier  age  with  the  youth  of  the 
South,  have  always  given  me  a  leaning  towards  that  part  of 
the  country.  I  am  unconscious  of  local  prejudices.  My 
interest  in  the  South  strengthens  my  desire  to  avert  the 
annexation  of  Texas  to  the  Union.  That  act,  I  feel,  will 
fix  an  indelible  stain  on  the  South.  It  will  conflict  with  the 
generous  elements  of  character,  which  I  take  pleasure  in 
recollecting  there.  The  South  will  cease  to  be  what  it  was. 
In  the  period  to  which  I  have  referred,  slavery  was  acknow- 
ledged there,  to  be  a  great  evil.  I  heard  it  spoken  of  freely, 
with  abhorrence.  The  moral  sentiment  of  the  community 
on  this  point  was  not  corrupt.  The  principles  of  Mr.  Jeffer- 
son in  relation  to  it  found  a  wide  response.  The  doctrine, 
that  slavery  is  a  good,  if  spread  by  the  seizure  of  Texas, 
will  work  a  moral  revolution,  the  most  disastrous  which  can 
befal  the  South.  It  will  paralyze  every  effort  for  escape 
from  this  enormous  evil.  A  deadly  sophistry  will  weigh  on 
men's  consciences  and  hearts,  until  terrible  convulsions, 
—  God's  just  judgments, —  will  hasten  the  deliverance 
which  human  justice  and  benevolence  were  bound  to  ac- 
complish. 

IV.  I  now  proceed  to  another  important  argument  against 
the  annexation  of  Texas  to  our  country,  the  argument 
drawn  from  the  bearings  of  the  measure  on  our  National 
Union.  Next  to  liberty,  union  is  our  great  political  interest, 
and  this  cannot  but  be  loosened,  it  may  be  dissolved,  by 
the  proposed  extention  of  our  territory.  I  will  not  say 


48 

that  every  extension  must  be  pernicious,  that  our  gov- 
ernment cannot  hold  together  even  our  present  confed- 
eracy, that  the  central  heart  cannot  send  its  influences 
to  the  remote  states  which  are  to  spring  up  within  our 
present  borders.  Old  theories  must  be  cautiously  applied  to 
the  institutions  of  this  country.  If  the  Federal  government 
will  abstain  from  minute  legislation,  and  rigidly  confine 
itself  within  constitutional  bounds,  it  may  be  a  bond  of 
union  to  more  extensive  communities  than  were  ever  com- 
prehended under  one  sway.  Undoubtedly  there  is  peril  in 
extending  ourselves,  and  yet  the  chief  benefit  of  the  Union, 
which  is  the  preservation  of  peaceful  relations  among  neigh- 
boring states,  is  so  vast,  that  some  risk  should  be  taken  to 
secure  it  in  the  greatest  possible  degree.  The  objection 
to  the  annexation  of  Texas,  drawn  from  the  un wield iness  it 
would  give  to  the  country,  though  very  serious,  is  not  deci- 
sive. A  far  more  serious  objection  is,  that  it  is  to  be  annexed 
to  us  for  the  avowed  purpose  of  multiplying  slaveholding 
states,  and  thus  giving  political  power.  This  cannot,  ought 
not  to  be  borne.  It  will  justify,  it  will  at  length  demand 
the  separation  of  the  states. 

We  maintain  that  this  policy  is  altogether  without  reason 
on  the  part  of  the  South.  The  South  has  exerted,  and  can- 
not help  exerting  a  disproportionate  share  of  influence  on 
the  confederacy.  The  slaveholding  states  have  already  ad- 
vantages for  cooperation  and  for  swaying  the  country,  which 
the  others  do  not  possess.  The  free  states  have  no  great 
common  interest,  like  slavery,  to  bojd  them  together.  They 
differ  in  character,  feelings,  and  pursuits.  They  agree  but 
on  one  point  and  that  a  negative  one,  the  absence  of  slavery, 
and  this  distinction,  as  is  well  known,  makes  no  lively  im- 
pression, on  the  consciousness,  and  in  no  degree  counteracts 
the  influences  which  divide  them  from  one  another.  To 
this  may  be  added  the  well  known  fact,  that  in  the  free 


49 

states,  the  subject  of  politics  is  of  secondary  importance, 
whilst  at  the  South   it  is  paramount.     At  the   North  every 
man  must  toil  for  subsistence,  and  amidst  the  feverish  com- 
petitions and  anxieties  of  the  eager  and  universal  competition 
for  gain,  political  power   is  sought  with   little   comparative 
avidity.     In  some  districts,  it   is  hard  to  find  fit  representa- 
tives for  Congress,  so  backward  are  superior  men  to  forego 
the   emoluments    of  their   vocation,  the  prospects  of  inde- 
pendence, for  the  uncertainties  of  public  life.     At  the  North, 
too,  a  vast  amount  of  energy  is  absorbed  in  associations  of  a 
religious,  philanthropic,  literary  character.     The  apathy  of 
the  free  states  in   regard  "to   Texas,  an   apathy  from  which 
they  are  just  beginning   to   be  roused,  is  a  striking  proof  of 
their  almost  incredible  indifference  to  political  power.     Per- 
haps no  parallel  to  it   can   be   found  in  the   history  of  con- 
federations.    What  a  contrast  does  the  South  form  with  the 
divided  and   slumbering  North  !     There,  one  strong,  broad 
distinction  exists,  of  which  all  the   members  of  the  commu- 
nity have  a  perpetual   consciousness;  there,  a  peculiar  ele- 
ment is  found,  which  spreads  its  influence  through  the  mass, 
and  impresses   itself  on    the   whole    constitution  of  society. 
Slavery  is  not  a  superficial  distinction.    Nothing  decides  the 
character  of  a  people  more  than  the  form  and  determination 
of  labor.     Hence  we  find  a  unity  at  the   South  unknown  at 
the  North.     At  the  South,  too,  the  proprietors,  released  from 
the  necessity  of  labor,  and  having  little  of  the  machinery  of 
associations  to  engage  their   attention,  devote  themselves  to 
politics  with  a  concentration  of  zeal,  which  a  Northern  man 
can  only  comprehend  by  residing  on   the   spot.     Hence  the 
South  has  professional  politicians,  a  character  hardly  known 
in  the  free  states.     The    result   is  plain.     The  South  has 
generally  ruled  the  country.     It  must  always  have  an  undue 
power.     United,  as  the  North  cannot   be,  it  can  always  link 
with  itself  some  discontented  portion   at  the  North,  which  it 
5 


60 

can  liberally  reward  by  the  patronage  which  the  possession 
of  the  government  confers.  That  the  constitutional  rights 
of  the  South  should  be  prejudiced  by  the  North,  is  one  of 
those  moral  impossibilities,  against  which  it  is  folly  to  ask 
security. 

We  cannot  consent,  that  the  South  should  extend  its 
already  disproportionate  power  by  an  indefinite  extension  of 
territory,  because  we  maintain,  that  its  dispositions  towards 
us  give  us  no  pledge,  that  its  power  will  be  well  used.  It  is 
unhappily  too  well  known,  that  it  wants  friendly  feelings 
towards  the  North.  Divided  from  us  by  an  institution,  which 
gives  it  a  peculiar  character,  which  lays  it  open  to  reproach, 
and  which  will  never  suffer  it  to  rival  our  prosperity,  it  cannot 
look  on  us  with  favor.  It  magnifies  our  faults.  It  is  blind 
to  our  virtues.  At  the  North,  no  unfriendly  disposition  pre- 
vails towards  the  South.  We  are  too  busy  and  too  pros- 
perous for  hatred.  We  complain,  that  our  good  will  is  not 
reciprocated.  We  complain,  that  our  commerce  and  manu- 
factures have  sometimes  found  little  mercy  at  the  hands  of 
the  South.  Still  more  we  feel,  though  we  are  slow  to  com- 
plain of  it,  that  in  Congress,  the  common  ground  of  the 
confederacy,  we  have  had  to  encounter  a  tone  and  bearing, 
which  it  has  required  the  colder  temperament  of  the  North 
to  endure.  We  cannot  consent  to  take  a  lower  place  than 
We  now  hold.  We  cannot  consent,  that  our  confede- 
racy should  spread  over  the  wilds  of  Mexico  to  give  us  more 
powerful  masters.  The  old  balance  of  the  country  is  unfavor- 
able enough.  We  cannot  consent,  that  a  new  weight 
should  be  thrown  in,  which  may  fix  the  political  inferiority  of 
ourselves  and  our  posterity.  I  give  you,  Sir,  the  feelings  of 
the  North.  In  part  they  may  be  prejudices.  Jealousies, 
often  groundless,  are  the  necessary  fruits  of  confederations. 
On  that  account,  measures  must  not  be  adopted,  disturbing 
violently,  unnaturally,  unexpectedly,  the  old  distributions  of 
power,  and  directly  aimed  at  that  result. 


51 

In  other  ways  the  annexation  of  Texas  is  to  endanger  the 
Union.  It  will  give  new  violence  and  passion  to  the  agita- 
tion of  the  question  of  slavery.  It  is  well  known,  that  a 
majority  at  the  North  have  discouraged  the  discussion  of 
this  topic,  on  the  ground,  that  slavery  was  imposed  on  the 
South  by  necessity,  that  its  continuance  was  not  of  choice, 
and  that  the  states,  in  which  it  subsists,  if  left  to  themselves, 
would  find  a  remedy  in  their  own  way.  Let  slavery  be  sys- 
tematically proposed  as  the  policy  of  these  states,  let  it  bind 
them  together  in  efforts  to  establish  political  power,  and  a  new 
feeling  will  burst  forth  through  the  whole  North.  It  will  be 
a  concentration  of  moral,  religious,  political,  and  patriotic 
feelings.  The  fire,  now  smothered,  will  blaze  out,  and  of 
consequence,  new  jealousies  and  exasperations  will  be 
kindled  at  the  South.  Strange  that  the  South  should  think 
of  securing  its  "peculiar  institutions"  by  violent  means. 
Its  violence  necessarily  increases  the  evils  it  would  suppress. 
For  example,  by  denying  the  right  of  petition  to  those  who 
sought  the  abolition  of  slavery  within  the  immediate  juris- 
diction of  the  United  States,  it  has  awakened  a  spirit,  which 
will  overwhelm  Congress  with  petitions,  till  this  right  be 
restored.  The  annexation  of  Texas  would  be  a  measure 
of  the  same  injurious  character,  and  would  stir  up  an  open 
uncompromising  hostility  to  slavery,  of  which  we  have  seen 
no  example,  and  which  would  produce  a  reaction  very 
dangerous  to  union. 

The  annexation  of  Texas  will  give  rise  to  constitutional 
questions  and  conflicts,  which  cannot  be  adjusted.  It  is 
well  known,  that  the  additions  to  our  territory  of  Louisiana 
and  Florida  were  acceded  to  by  the  North,  though  very 
reluctantly,  on  account  of  their  obvious  utility.  But  it  has 
been  seriously  doubted,  whether  the  powers  given  by  the 
constitution  were  not  in  both  cases  transcended.  "  At  the 
time  Louisiana  was  acquired,  Mr.  Jefferson  himself  was 


52 

deliberately  of  opinion,  that  the  treaty-making  authority 
under  the  constitution  of  the  United  States,  was  incompe- 
tent to  make  such  an  acquisition  from  a  foreign  power, 
and  annex  it  to  the  Union,  and  that  an  amendment  of  the 
constitution  would  be  necessary  to  sanction  it.  In  a  letter 
to  Governor  Lincoln  he  even  furnishes  the  formula  of  a  pro- 
posed amendment,  for  the  purpose  of  admitting  Louisiana 
into  the  Union  ;  but  adds,  that  the  less  that  is  said  about 
the  constitutional  difficulty,  the  better.  Very  little  was 
said  about  it,  and  there  was  a  general  and  tacit  acquies- 
cence, in  consequence  of  the  great  and  incalculable  advan- 
tages expected  from  the  acquisition  in  a  national  point  of 
view.  The  purchase  of  Texas  under  existing  circumstan- 
ces, might  present  a  very  different  question."  * 

It  is  true,  that,  as  a  general  rule,  the  right  to  purchase 
territory  is  incident  to  sovereignty.  But  the  sovereignty  of 
our  national  government  is  a  limited  one.  The  constitu- 
tion was  a  compromise  among  independent  states,  and  it  is 
well  known  that  geographical  relations  and  local  interests 
were  among  the  essential  conditions  on  which  the  com- 
promise was  made.  We  are  willing,  for  the  sake  of  uni- 
versally acknowledged  public  interests,  that  additions  of 
territory  should  be  made  to  our  country.  But  can  it  be 
admitted,  that  the  constitution  gives  .power  to  the  President 
and  Senate  to  add  a  vast  realm  to  the  United  States,  for  the 
very  purpose  of  disturbing  the  balance  between  different 
sections,  or  of  securing  ascendancy  to  certain  parts  of  the 
confederacy  ?  Was  not  the  constitution  founded  on  condi- 
tions or  considerations,  which  are  even  more  authoritative 
than  its  particular  provisions,  and  the  violation  of  which, 
must  be  death  to  our  Union  1  Besides,  a  new  question  is  to 
be  opened  by  the  admission  of  Texas.  We  shall  not  pur- 

*  North  American  Review,  July,  1836. 


53 

chase  a  territory  as  in  the  case  of  Louisiana,  but  shall 
admit  an  independent  community,  invested  with  sovereignty, 
into  tb-6  confederation  ;  and  can  the  treaty-making  power 
do  this?  Can  it  receive  foreign  nations,  however  vast,  to 
the  Union?  Does  not  the  question  carry  its  own  answer? 
By  the  assumption  of  such  a  right,  would  not  the  old  com- 
pact be  at  once  considered  as  dissolved? 

To  me  it  seems  not  only  the  right,  but  the  duty  of  the 
free  states,  in  case  of  the  annexation  of  Texas,  to  say  to 
the  slaveholding  states,  "-We  regard  this  act  as  the  dissolu- 
tion of  the  Union.  The  essential  conditions  of  the  national 
compact  are  violated.  To  you  we  will  faithfully  adhere, 
but  will  not  join  ourselves  to  this  new  and  iniquitous  acqui- 
sition. We  will  not  become  partners  in  your  wars  with 
Mexico  and  Europe,  in  your  schemes  of  spreading  and 
perpetuating  slavery,  in  your  hopes  of  conquest,  in  your 
unrighteous  spoils."  No  one  prizes  the  Union  more  than 
myself,  as  the  means  of  peace.  But  with  Texas,  we  shall 
have  no  peace.  Texas,  brought  into  the  confederacy,  will 
bring  with  it  domestic  and  foreign  strife.  It  will  change 
our  relations  to  other  countries,  and  to  one  another.  A 
pacific  division  in  the  first  instance  seems  to  me  to  threaten 
less  contention,  than  a  lingering,  feverish  dissolution  of  the 
Union,  such  as  must  be  expected  under  this  fatal  innova- 
tion. 

I  am  but  one  of  a  nation  of  fifteen  millions,  and  as  such, 
may  seem  too  insignificant  to  protest  against  a  public  meas- 
ure. But  in  this  country,  every  man,  even  the  obscurest, 
participates  in  the  sovereignty,  and  is  responsible  for  public 
acts,  unless  by  some  mode  of  opposition,  proportioned  to  his 
sense  of  the  evil,  he  absolves  himself  from  the  guilt.  For 
one  then,  I  say,  that  earnestly  as  I  deprecate  the  separation 
of  these  states,  and  though  this  event  would  disappoint  most 
cherished  hopes  for  my  country,  still  I  can  submit  to  it  more 
5* 


54 

readily,  than  to  the  reception  of  Texas  into  the  confederacy. 
I  shrink  from  that  contamination.  I  shrink  from  an  act, 
which  is  to  pledge  us  as  a  people  to  robbery  and  war,  to  the 
work  of  upholding  and  extending  slavery,  without  limitation 
or  end.  I  do  not  desire  to  share  the  responsibility,  or  to  live 
under  the  laws  of  a  government,  adopting  such  a  policy,  and 
swayed  by  such  a  spirit,  as  would  be  expressed  by  the  incor- 
poration of  Texas  with  our  country. 

In  truth,  if  the  South  is  bent  on  incorporating  Texas 
with  itself,  as  a  new  prop  to  slavery,  it  would  do  well  to 
insist  on  the  division  of  the  states.  It  would,  in  so  doing, 
consult  best  its  own  safety.  It  should  studiously  keep  itself 
from  communion  with  the  free  part  of  the  country.  It 
should  suffer  no  rail-road  from  that  section  to  cross  its 
borders.  It  should  block  up  intercourse  \\ith  us,  by  sea 
and  land.  Still  more,  it  should  abjure  connexion  with  the 
whole  civilized  world  ;  for  from  every  country  it  would  be 
invaded  by  an  influence  hostile  to  slavery.  It  should  borrow 
the  code  of  the  Dictator  of  Paraguay,  and  seal  itself  hermeti- 
cally against  the  infectious  books,  opinions,  and  visits  of  for- 
eigners. Its  pride,  as  well  as  safety  should  teach  it  this  insu- 
lation ;  for  having  once  taken  the  ground,  that  slavery  is 
a  good,  to  be  spread  and  made  perpetual,  it  does  by  that  act 
forfeit  the  rank  which  it  covets  among  civilized  and  improving 
communities.  It  cannot  be  recognised  as  an  equal  by  other 
states.  On  this  point  the  decree  of  the  world  has  gone 
forth,  and  no  protests  or  clamors  can  drown  the  deep  solemn 
voice  of  humanity,  gathering  strength  with  every  new  gen- 
eration. A  community,  acknowledging  the  evils  of  slavery, 
and  continuing  it  only  because  the  first  law  of  nature,  self- 
preservation,  seems  to  require  gradual  processes  of  change, 
may  retain  the  respect  of  those  who  deem  their  fears  un- 
founded. But  a  community,  wedding  itself  to  slavery  in- 
separably, with  choice  and  affection,  and  with  the  pur- 


55 

pose  of  spreading  the  plague  far  and  wide,  must  become 
a  byword  among  the  nations ;  and  the  friend  of  humanity 
will  shake  off  the  dust  of  his  feet  against  it,  in  testimony 
of  his  reprobation. 

V.  I  proceed  now  to  the  last  head  of  this  communication. 
I  observe  that  the  xause  of  Liberty,  of  free  institutions,  a 
cause  more  sacred  than  Union,  forbids  the  annexation  of 
Texas.  It  is  plain  from  the  whole  preceding  discussion, 
that  this  measure  will  exert  a  disastrous  influence  on  the 
moral  sentiments  and  principles  of  this  country,  by  sanc- 
tioning plunder,  by  inflaming  cupidity,  by  encouraging  law- 
less speculation,  by  bringing  into  the  confederacy  a  com- 
munity whose  whole  history  and  circumstances  are  adverse 
to  moral  order  and  wholesome  restraint,  by  violating  national 
faith,  by  proposing  immoral  and  inhuman  ends,  by  placing 
us  as  a  people  in  opposition  to  the  efforts  of  philanthropy, 
and  the  advancing  movements  of  the  civilized  world.  It 
will  spread  a  moral  corruption,  already  too  rife  among  us, 
and  in  so  doing,  it  will  shake  the  foundations  of  freedom 
at  home,  and  bring  reproach  on  it  abroad.  It  will  be 
treachery  to  the  great  cause  which  has  been  confided  to  this 
above  all  nations. 

The  dependence  of  freedom  on  morals  is  an  old  subject, 
and  I  have  no  thought  of  enlarging  on  the  general  truth. 
I  wish  only  to  say,  that  it  is  one  which  needs  to  be  brought 
home  to  us  at  the  present  moment,  and  that  it  cannot  be 
trifled  with  but  to  our  great  peril.  There  are  symptoms 
of  corruption  amongst  us,  which  show  us  that  we  cannot 
enter  on  a  new  career  of  crime  without  peculiar  hazard. 
I  cannot  do  justice  to  this  topic  without  speaking  freely  of 
our  country,  as  freely  as  I  should  of  any  other ;  and  unhap- 
pily, we  are  so  accustomed,  as  a  people,  to  receive  incense, 
to  be  soothed  by  flattery,  and  to  account  reputation  as  a 


56 

more  important  interest  than  morality,  that  my  freedom  may 
be  construed  into  a  kind  of  disloyalty.  But  it  would  be 
wrong  to  make  concessions  to  this  dangerous  weakness.  I 
believe  that  morality  is  the  first  interest  of  a  people,  and 
that  this  requires  self-knowledge  in  nations,  as  truly  as  in 
individuals.  He  who  helps  a  community  to  comprehend 
itself,  and  to  apply  to  itself  a  higher  rule  of  action,  is  the 
truest  patriot,  and  contributes  most  to  its  enduring  fame. 

I  have  said,  that  we  shall  expose  our  freedom  to  great 
peril  by  entering  a  new  career  of  crime.  We  are  corrupt 
enough  already.  In  one  respect,  our  institutions  have  dis- 
appointed us  all.  They  have  not  wrought  out  for  us  that 
elevation  of  character,  which  is  the  most  precious,  and  in 
truth,  the  only  substantial  blessing  of  liberty.  Our  progress 
in  prosperity  has  indeed  been  the  wonder  of  the  world ;  but 
this  prosperity  has  done  much  to  counteract  the  ennobling 
influence  of  free  institutions.  The  peculiar  circumstances 
of  the  country  and  of  our  times,  have  poured  in  upon  us  a 
torrent  of  wealth;  and  human  nature  has  not  been  strong 
enough  for  the  assault  of  such  severe  temptation.  Prosper- 
ity has  become  dearer  than  freedom.  Government  is  re- 
garded more  as  a  means  of  enriching  the  country,  than  of 
securing  private  rights.  We  have  become  wedded  to  gain, 
as  our  chief  good.  That  under  the  predominance  of  this 
degrading  passion,  the  higher  virtues,  the  moral  indepen- 
dence, the  simplicity  of  manners,  the  stern  uprightness, 
the  self-reverence,  the  respect  for  man  as  man,  which  are 
the  ornaments  and  safe-guards  of  a  republic,  should  wither, 
and  give  place  to  selfish  calculation  and  indulgence,  to  show 
and  extravagance,  to  anxious,  envious,  discontented  strivings, 
to  wild  adventure,  and  to  the  gambling  spirit  of  speculation, 
will  surprise  no  one  who  has  studied  human  nature.  The 
invasion  of  Texas  by  our  citizens,  is  a  mournful  comment  on 
our  national  morality.  Whether  without  some  fiery  trial,  some 


57 

signal  prostration  of  our  prosperity,  we  can  rise  to  the  force 
and  self-denial  of  freemen,  is  a  question  not  easily  solved. 

There  are  other  alarming  views.  A  spirit  of  law- 
lessness pervades  the  community,  which,  if  not  repressed, 
threatens  the  dissolution  of  our  present  forms  of  soci- 
ety. Even  in  the  old  states,  mobs  are  taking  the  gov- 
ernment into  their  hands,  and  a  profligate  newspaper 
finds  little  difficulty  in  stirring  up  multitudes  to  violence. 
When  we  look  at  the  parts  of  the  country  nearest  Texas, 
we  see  the  arm  of  the  law  paralyzed  by  the  passions  of  the 
individual.  Men  take  under  their  own  protection  the  rights 
which  it  is  the  very  office  of  government  to  secure.  The 
citizen,  wearing  arms  as  means  of  defence,  carries  with  him 
perpetual  proofs  of  the  weakness  of  the  authorities  under 
which  he  lives.  The  substitution  of  self-constituted  tribu- 
nals for  the  regular  course  of  justice,  and  the  infliction  of 
immediate  punishment  in  the  moment  of  popular  frenzy,  are 
symptoms  of  a  people  half  reclaimed  from  barbarism.  I 
know  not,  that  any  civilized  country  on  earth  has  exhibited, 
during  the  last  year,  a  spectacle  so  atrocious,  as  the  burn- 
ing of  a  colored  man  by  a  slow  fire,  in  the  neighborhood  of 
St.  Louis ;  and  this  infernal  sacrifice  was  offered  not  by  a 
few  fiends  selected  from  the  whole  country,  hut  by  a 
crowd  gathered  from  a  single  spot.  Add  to  all  this,  the 
invasions  of  the  rights  of  speech  and  of  the  press  by  law- 
less force,  the  extent  and  toleration  of  which  oblige  us  to 
believe,  that  a  considerable  portion  of  our  citizens  have  no 
comprehension  of  the  first  principles  of  liberty. 

It  is  an  undeniable  fact,  that,  in  consequence  of  these 
and  other  symptoms,  the  confidence  of  many  reflecting  men 
in  our  free  institutions,  is  very  much  impaired.  Some 
despair.  That  main  pillar  of  public  liberty,  mutual  trust 
among  citizens,  is  shaken.  That  we  must  seek  security 
for  property  and  life  in  a  stronger  government,  is  a  spread- 


58 

ing  conviction.  Men,  who  in  public  talk  of  the  stability 
of  our  institutions,  whisper  their  doubts  (perhaps  their 
scorn)  in  private.  So  common  are  these  apprehensions, 
that  the  knowledge  of  them  has  reached  Europe.  Not  long 
ago,  I  received  a  letter  from  an  enlightened  and  fervent  friend 
of  liberty,  in  Great  Britain,  beseeching  me  to  inform  him,  how 
far  he  was  to  rely  on  the  representations  of  one  of  his  country- 
men just  returned  from  the  United  States,  who  had  reported 
to  him,  that,  in  the  most  respectable  society,  he  had  again 
and  again  been  told,  that  the  experiment  of  freedom  here 
was  a  failure,  and  that  faith  in  our  institutions  was  gone. 
That  the  traveller  misinterpreted  in  a  measure  what  he 
heard,  we  shall  all  acknowledge.  But  is  the  old  enthusiasm 
of  liberty  unchilled  among  us?  Is  the  old  jealousy  of  power 
as  keen  and  uncompromising  ?  Do  not  parties  more  unscru- 
pulously encroach  on  the  constitution  and  on  the  rights  of 
minorities  ?  In  one  respect  we  must  all  admit  a  change. 
When  you  and  I  grew  up,  what  a  deep  interest  pervaded 
this  country  in  the  success  of  free  institutions  abroad  ! 
With  what  throbbing  hearts  did  we  follow  the  struggles  of 
the  oppressed  !  How  many  among  us  were  ready  to  lay 
down  their  lives  for  the  cause  of  liberty  on  the  earth  !  And 
now  who  cares  for  free  institutions  abroad  ?  How  seldom 
does  the  topic  pass  men's  lips  !  Multitudes,  discouraged  by 
the  licentiousness  at  home,  doubt  the  value  of  popular  insti- 
tutions, especially  in  less  enlightened  countries ;  whilst 
greater  numbers,  locked  up  in  gain,  can  spare  no  thought 
on  the  struggles  of  liberty,  and,  provided  they  can  drive  a 
prosperous  trade  with  foreign  nations,  care  little  whether 
they  are  bond  or  free. 

I  may  be  thought  inclined  to  draw  a  dark  picture  of  our 
moral  condition.  But  at  home  I  am  set  down  among  those 
who  hope  against  hope  ;  and  I  have  never  ceased  to  con- 
demn as  a  crime  the  despondence  of  those,  who,  lamenting 


59 

the  corruptions  of  the  times,  do  not  lift  a  finger  to  withstand 
it.  I  am  far,  very  far  from  despair.  I  have  no  fears  but  such 
as  belong  to  a  friend  of  freedom.  Among  dark  omens  I  see 
favorable  influences,  remedial  processes,  counteracting  agen- 
cies. I  well  know  that  the  vicious  part  of  our  system  makes 
more  noise  and  show  than  the  sound.  I  know  that  the  proph- 
ets of  ruin  to  our  institutions  are  to  be  found  most  frequently 
in  the  party  out  of  power,  and  that  many  dark  auguries  must 
be  set  down  to  the  account  of  disappointment  and  irritation. 
I  am  sure  too,  that  imminent  peril  would  wake  up  the  spirit 
of  our  fathers,  in  many  who  slumber  in  these  days  of  ease  and 
security.  It  is  also  true  that,  with  all  our  defects,  there  is  a 
wider  diffusion  of  intelligence,  moral  restraint,  and  self- 
respect  among  us,  than  through  any  other  community.  Still 
I  am  compelled  to  acknowledge  an  extent  of  corruption 
among  us,  which  menaces  freedom  and  our  dearest  interests: 
and  a  policy,  which  will  give  new  and  enduring  impulse  to 
corruption,  which  will  multiply  indefinitely  public  and  private 
crime,  ought  to  be  reprobated  as  the  sorest  calamity  we  can 
incur.  Freedom  is  fighting  her  battles  in  the  world  with 
sufficient  odds  against  her.  Let  us  not  give  new  chances  to 
her  foes. 

That  the  cause  of  republicanism  is  suffering  abroad 
through  the  defects  and  crimes  of  our  countrymen,  is  as 
true,  as  that  it  is  regarded  with  increased  skepticism  among 
ourselves.  Abroad,  republicanism  is  identified  with  the 
United  States,  and  it  is  certain  that  the  American  name  has 
not  risen  of  late  in  the  world.  It  so  happens,  that,  whilst 
writing,  I  have  received  a  newspaper  from  England,  in  which 
Lynch  law  is  as  familiarly  associated  with  our  country,  as  if 
it  were  one  of  our  establishments.  We  are  quoted  as  monu- 
ments of  the  degrading  tendencies  of  popular  institutions. 
When  I  visited  England  fifteen  years  ago,  republican  senti- 
ments were  freely  expressed  to  me.  I  should  probably  hear 


60 

none  now.  Men's  minds  seem  to  be  returning  to  severer 
principles  of  government;  and  this  country  is  responsible 
for  a  part  of  this  change.  It  is  believed  abroad,  that 
property  is  less  secure  among  us,  order  less  stable,  law  less 
revered,  social  ties  more  easily  broken,  religion  less  enforced, 
life  held  less  sacred,  than  in  other  countries.  Undoubtedly 
the  prejudices  of  foreign  nations,  the  interests  of  foreign  gov- 
ernments, have  led  to  gross  exaggeration  of  evils  here.  The 
least  civilized  parts  of  the  country  are  made  to  represent  the 
whole,  and  occasional  atrocities  are  construed  into  habits. 
But  who  does  not  feel,  that  we  have  given  cause  of  reproach? 
and  shall  we  fix  this  reproach,  and  exasperate  it  into  indigna- 
tion and  hatred,  by  adopting  a  policy  against  which  the  moral 
sentiments  of  the  Christian  world  revolt  1  Shall  we  make 
the  name  of  republic  "  a  stench  in  the  nostrils  "  of  all 
nations,  by  employing  our  power  to  build  up  and  spread 
slavery,  by  resisting  the  efforts  of  other  countries  for  its 
abolition,  by  falling  behind  monarchies  in  reverence  for  the 
rights  of  men  ? 

When  we  look  forward  to  the  probable  growth  of  this 
country ;  when  we  think  of  the  millions  of  human  beings 
who  are  to  spread  over  our  present  territory  ;  of  the  career 
of  improvement  and  glory  opened  to  this  new  people  ;  of  the 
impulses  which  free  institutions,  if  prosperous,  may  be  ex- 
pected to  give  to  philosophy,  religion,  science,  literature, 
and  arts  ;  of  the  vast  field  in  which  the  experiment  is  to  be 
made  of  what  the  unfettered  powers  of  man  may  achieve  ; 
of  the  bright  page  of  history  which  our  fathers  have  filled, 
and  of  the  advantages  under  which  their  toils  and  virtues 
have  placed  us  for  carrying  on  their  work  ;  when  we  think 
of  all  this,  can  we  help  for  a  moment  surrendering  ourselves 
to  bright  visions  of  our  country's  glory,  before  which  all 
the  glories  of  the  past  are  to  fade  away  1  Is  it  presumption 
to  say,  that,  if  just  to  ourselves  and  all  nations,  we  shall  .be 


61 

Felt  through  this  whole  continent,  that  we  shall  spread  our 
language,  institutions,  and  civilization  through  a  wider  space 
than  any  nation  has  yet  rilled  with  a  like  beneficent  influ- 
ence? And  are  we  prepared  to  barter  these  hopes,  this  sub- 
lime moral  empire,  for  conquests  by  force?  Are  we  pre- 
pared to  sink  to  the  level  of  unprincipled  nations,  to  con- 
tent ourselves  with  a  vulgar,  guilty  greatness,  to  adopt  in 
our  youth  maxims  and  ends  which  must  brand  our  future 
with  sordidness,  oppression,  and  shame?  This  country  can- 
not without  peculiar  infamy  run  the  common  race  of 
national  rapacity.  Our  origin,  institutions,  and  position  are 
peculiar,  and  all  favor  an  upright,  honorable  course.  We 
have  not  the  apologies  of  nations  hemmed  in  by  narrow 
bounds  or  threatened  by  the  overshadowing  power  of  ambi- 
tious neighbors.  If  we  surrender  ourselves  to  a  selfish 
policy,  we  shall  sin  nlmost  without  temptation,  and  forfeit 
opportunities  of  greatness  vouchsafed  to  no  other  people,  for 
a  prize  below  contempt. 

I  have  alluded  to  the  want  of  wisdom  with  which  we  are 
accustomed  to  speak  of  our  destiny  as  a  people.  We  are 
destined  (that  is  the  word)  to  overspread  North  America ; 
and,  intoxicated  with  the  idea,  it  matters  little  to  us  how  we 
accomplish  our  fate.  To  spread,  to  supplant  others,  to  cover 
a  boundless  space,  this  seems  our  ambition,  no  matter  what 
influence  we  spread  with  us.  Why  cannot  we  rise  to  noble 
conceptions  of  our  destiny  ?  Why  do  we  not  feel,  that  our 
work  as  a  nation  is,  to  carry  freedom,  religion,  science,  and 
a  nobler  form  of  human  nature  over  this  continent ;  and  why 
do  we  not  remember,  that  to  diffuse  these  blessings  we  must 
first  cherish  them  in  our  own  borders  ;  and  that  whatever 
deeply  and  permanently  corrupts  us  will  make  our  spreading 
influence  a  curse,  not  a  blessing,  to  this  new  world  ?  It  is  a 
common  idea  in  Europe,  that  we  are  destined  to  spread  an 
inferior  civilization  over  North  America  ;  that  our  slavery 
6 


62 

and  our  absorption  in  gain  and  outward  interests  mark  us 
out,  as  fated  to  fall  behind  the  old  world  in  the  higher  im- 
provements of  human  nature,  in  the  philosophy,  the  refine- 
ments, the  enthusiasm  of  literature  and  the  arts  which  throw 
a  lustre  round  older  countries.  I  am  not  prophet  enough  to 
read  our  fate.  I  believe,  indeed,  that  we  are  to  make  our 
futurity  for  ourselves.  I  believe,  that  a  nation's  destiny  lies 
in  its  character,  in  the  principles  which  govern  its  policy 
and  bear  rule  in  the  hearts  of  its  citizens.  I  take  my  stand 
on  God's  moral  and  eternal  law.  A  nation  renouncing  and 
defying  this  cannot  be  free,  cannot  be  great. 

Religious  men  in  this  community,  and  they  are  many,  are 
peculiarly  bound  to  read  the  future  history  of  their  country, 
not  in  the  flattering  promises  of  politicians,  but  in  the  warn- 
ings of  conscience  and  in  the  declaration  of  God's  word. 
They  know  and  should  make  it  known,  that  nations  cannot 
consolidate  free  institutions  and  secure  a  lasting  prosperity 
by  crime.  They  know,  that  retribution  awaits  communities 
as  well  as  individuals  ;  and  they  should  tremble  amidst  their 
hopes,  when,  with  this  solemn  truth  on  their  minds,  they  look 
round  on  their  country.  Let  them  consider  the  clearness 
with  which  God's  will  is  now  made  known,  and  the  signal 
blessings  of  his  Providence  poured  out  on  this  people,  with  a 
profusion  accorded  to  no  other  under  heaven  ;  and  then  let 
them  consider  our  ingratitude  for  his  boundless  gifts,  our 
abuse  of  his  beneficence  to  sensual  and  selfish  gratifica- 
tion, our  unmeasured,  unrighteous  love  of  gain,  our 
unprincipled  party-spirit,  and  our  faithless  and  cruel 
wrongs  toward  the  Indian  race  ;  and  can  they  help  fear- 
ing, that  the  cup  of  wrath  is  filling  for  this  people?  Men, 
buried  in  themselves  and  in  outward  interests,  atheists  in 
heart  and  life,  may  scoff  at  the  doctrine  of  national  retribu- 
tion, because  they  do  not  see  God's  hand  stretched  out  to 
destroy  guilty  communities.  But  does  not  all  history  teach, 


63 

that  the  unlicensed  passions  of  a  guilty  people  are  more 
terrible  ministers  of  punishment  than  miraculous  inflictions? 
To  chastise  and  destroy,  God  needs  not  interfere  by  super- 
natural judgments.  In  every  community,  there,  are  elements 
of  discord,  revolution,  and  ruin,  pent  up  in  the  human  soul, 
which  need  only  to  be  quickened  and  set  free  by  a  new 
order  of  events,  to  shake  and  convulse  the  whole  social  fab- 
ric. Never  were  the  causes  of  disastrous  change  in  human 
affairs  more  active  than  at  the  present  moment.  Society 
heaves  and  trembles  from  the  struggle  of  opposing  principles, 
as  the  earth  quakes  through  the  force  of  central  fires.  This 
is  not  the  time  for  presumption,  for  defying  Heaven  by 
new  crimes,  for  giving  a  new  range  to  cupidity  and  ambi- 
tion. Men  who  fear  God  must  fear  for  their  country,  in 
this  "  day  of  provocation,"  and  they  will  be  false  to  their 
country,  if  they  look  on  passively,  and  see  without  remon- 
strance the  consummation  of  a  great  national  crime  which 
cannot  fail  to  bring  down  awful  retribution. 

1  am  aware  that  there  are  those,  who,  on  reading  these  pages, 
will  smile  at  my  simplicity  in  urging  moral  and  religious  mo- 
tives, disinterested  considerations,  lofty  aims,  on  a  politician. 
The  common  notion  is,  that  the  course  of  a  man  embarked  in 
public  life  will  be  shaped  by  the  bearings  of  passing  events 
on  his  immediate  popularity  ;  that  virtue  and  freedom,  how- 
ever they  may  round  his  periods  in  the  senate,  have  little 
influence  on  his  vote.  But  I  do  not  believe,  that  public  life 
is  necessarily  degrading,  or  that  a  statesman  is  incapable  of 
looking  above  himself.  Public  life  appeals  to  the  noblest,  as 
well  as  basest  principles  of  human  nature.  It  holds  up  for 
pursuit  enduring  fame,  as  well  as  the  notoriety  of  the  pass- 
ing hour.  By  giving  opportunities  of  acting  on  the  vast 
and  permanent  interests  of  a  nation,  it  often  creates  a  deep 
sense  of  responsibility,  and  a  generous  self-oblivion.  I  have 
too  much  faith  in  human  nature  to  distrust  the  influence  of 


64 

great  truths  and  high  motives  on  any  class  of  men,  especially 
on  men  of  commanding  intelligence.  There  is  a  congeni- 
ality between  vast  powers  of  thought  and  dignity  of  pur- 
pose. None  are  so  capable  of  sacrificing  themselves  as 
those  who  have  most  to  sacrifice,  who,  in  offering  themselves, 
make  the  greatest  offerings  to  humanity.  With  this  convic- 
tion, I  am  not  discouraged  by  the  anticipated  smiles  and 
scoffs  of  those,  who  will  think  that  in  insisting  on  national 
purity  as  the  essential  condition  of  freedom  and  greatness,  I 
have  "preached"  to  the  winds.  To  you,  Sir,  rectitude  is 
not  an  empty  name,  nor  will  a  measure,  fraught  with  lasting 
corruption  and  shame  to  your  countrv,  seem  to  you  any  thing 
but  a  fearful  calamity. 

I  have  now  finished  the  task  which  I  have  felt  myself 
bound  to  undertake.  That  I  have  escaped  all  error,  I  can- 
not hope.  That  I  may  have  fallen  into  occasional  exaggera- 
tion, I  ought  perhaps  to  fear  from  the  earnestness  with  which 
I  have  written.  But  of  the  essential  truth  of  the  views  here 
communicated,  I  cannot  doubt.  It  is  exceedingly  to  be  re- 
gretted, that  the  subject  of  this  letter  has  as  yet  drawn 
little  attention  at  the  North.  The  unprecedented  pecuniary 
difficulties,  pressing  now  on  the  country,  have  absorbed  the 
public  mind.  And  yet  these  difficulties,  should  they  be 
aggravated  and  continued  far  beyond  what  is  most  dreaded, 
would  be  a  light  national  evil,  compared  with  the  annexation 
of  Texas  to  the  Union.  I  trust  the  people  will  not  slumber 
on  the  edge  of  this  precipice,  till  it  shall  be  too  late  to  reflect 
and  provide  for  safety.  Too  much  time  has  been  given  for 
the  ripening  of  this  unrighteous  project.  I  doubt  not,  as 
I  have  said,  that  opposition  exists  to  it  in  the  slaveholding 
states.  This,  if  manifested  in  any  strength,  would  imme- 
diately defeat  it.  The  other  states  should  raise  a  voice 
against  it,  like  the  voice  of  many  waters.  Party  dissen- 
sions should  be  swallowed  up  in  this  vast  common  interest. 


65 

The  will  of  the  people,  too  strong  and  fixed  to  be  resisted, 
should  be  expressed  to  Congress,  in  remonstrances  from 
towns,  cities,  counties,  and  Legislatures.  Let  no  man,  who 
feels  the  greatness  of  the  evil  which  threatens  us,  satisfy 
himself  with  unprofitable  regrets  ;  but  let  each  embody  his 
opposition  in  a  form  which  will  give  incitements  to  his  neigh- 
bors, and  act  on  men  in  power.  -tianCTOft  LJbftfen 

I  take  it  for  granted,  that  those  who  differ  from  me  will 
ascribe  what  I  have  written  to  unworthy  motives.  This  is 
the  common  mode  of  parrying  unwelcome  truths  ;  and  it  is 
not  without  influence,  where  the  author  is  unknown.  May 
I  then  be  allowed  to  say,  that  I  have  strong  reasons  for  be- 
lieving, that,  among  the  many  defects  of  this  letter,  those 
of  unworthy  intention  are  not  to  be  numbered.  The  re- 
luctance with  which  I  have  written  satisfies  me,  that  I  have 
not  been  impelled  by  any  headlong  passion.  Nor  can  I  have 
been  impelled  by  party  spirit.  I  am  pledged  to  no  party. 
In  truth,  I  do  not  feel  myself  able  to  form  a  decisive  opinion 
on  the  subjects,  which  now  inflame  and  divide  the  country, 
and  which  can  be  very  little  understood  except  by  men  who 
have  made  a  study  of  commerce  and  finance.  As  to  having 
written  from  that  most  common  motive,  the  desire  of  dis- 
tinction, I  may  be  permitted  to  say,  that,  to  win  the  public 
ear,  I  need  not  engage  in  a  controversy  which  will  expose 
me  to  unmeasured  reproach.  May  I  add,  that  I  have  lived 
long  enough  to  learn  the  worth  of  applause.  Could  I  indeed 
admit  the  slightest  hope  of  securing  to  myself  that  enduring 
fame,  which  future  ages  award  to  the  lights  and  benefactors 
of  their  race,  I  could  not  but  be  stirred  by  the  prospect. 
But  notoriety  among  contemporaries,  obtained  by  taking  part 
in  the  irritating  discussions  of  the  day,  I  would  not  stretch 
out  a  hand  to  secure. 

I  cannot  but  fear,  that  the  earnestness  with  which  I  have 
written  may  seem  to  indicate  an  undue  excitement  of 
6* 


66 

mind.  But  I  have  all  along  felt  distinctly  the  importance 
of  calmness,  and  have  seemed  to  myself  to  maintain  it.  I 
have  prepared  this  letter,  not  amidst  the  goadings,  irrita- 
tions, and  feverish  tumults  of  a  crowded  city,  but  in  the  still- 
ness of  retirement,  amid  scenes  of  peace  and  beauty.  Hardly 
an  hour  has  passed,  in  which  I  have  not  sought  relief  from 
the  exhaustion  of  writing,  by  walking  abroad  amidst  God's 
works,  which  seldom  fail  to  breathe  tranquillity,  and  which, 
by  their  harmony  and  beneficence,  continually  cheer  me,  as 
emblems  and  prophecies  of  a  more  harmonious  and  blessed 
state  of  human  affairs  than  has  yet  been  known.  Perhaps 
some  will  object  it  to  me,  that  a  man,  living  in  such  re- 
tirement, unfits  himself  to  judge  of  passing  events,  that 
he  is  prone  to  substitute  his  visions  for  realities,  and  to 
legislate  for  a  world  which  does  not  exist  I  acknowledge 
the  danger  of  such  a  position.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is 
equally  true,  that  the  man,  who  lives  in  a  crowd  and  re- 
ceives perpetual  impulse  from  its  prejudices  and  passions, 
who  connects  himself  with  a  party  and  looks  to  it  for  reward, 
cannot  easily  keep  his  mind  open  to  truth,  or  sacrifice  the 
interests  of  the  moment  to  everlasting  principles,  and  the 
enduring  welfare  of  his  country.  Everywhere  our  frail 
nature  is  severely  tried.  All  circumstances  have  their  perils. 
In  every  condition,  there  are  biases  to  wrong  judgment  and 
incitements  to  wrong  action.  Through  such  discipline,  we 
are  to  make  our  way  to  truth  and  perfection.  The  dread 
of  these  must  not  keep  us  inactive.  Having  sought  to  un- 
derstand the  difficulties  in  our  respective  paths,  and  having 
done  what  we  can  to  learn  the  truth,  we  must  commit  our- 
selves to  our  convictions  without  fear,  expressing  them  in 
word  and  action,  and  leaving  results  to  Him,  who  will  ac- 
cept our  pure  purpose,  and  whose  providence  is  the  pledge 
of  the  ultimate  triumphs  of  humanity  and  uprightness. 


You  and  I,  my  dear  Sir,  are  approaching  that  period  of 
life,  when  the  passions  lose  much  of  their  force,  when  dis- 
appointment, bereavement,  the  fall  of  our  contemporaries  on 
the  right  hand  and  the  left,  and  long  experience  of  the 
emptiness  of  human  favor  and  of  the  instability  of  all 
earthly  goods,  are  teaching  us  the  lofty  lessons  of  superior- 
ity to  the  fleeting  opinion  of  our  day,  of  reliance  on  the 
everlasting  law  of  Right,  of  reference  to  a  Higher  Judge 
than  man,  of  solemn  anticipation  of  a  final  account.  Per- 
mit me  to  close  this  letter,  with  desiring  for  you  in  your  com- 
manding station,  what  I  ask  for  myself  in  private  life,  that 
we  may  be  faithful  to  ourselves,  to  our  country,  to  mankind, 
to  the  benevolent  principles  of  the  Christian  faith,  and  to 
the  common  Father  of  the  whole  human  race. 

Very  respectfully, 

Your  friend  and  servant, 

WILLIAM   E.   CHANNING. 

Newport,  R.  I.,  August  1,  1837. 


NOTE. 


A  FEW  remarks,  which  have  been  suggested  since  the 
completion  of  the  preceding  letter,  I  shall  throw  into  a 
note. 

The  recognition  of  the  Independence  of  Texas  by  our 
government,  is  to  be  lamented,  as  unbecomingly  hasty,  and 
as  a  violation  of  the  principle  adopted  by  Mr.  Monroe,  in 
regard  to  the  Spanish  colonies.  "  These  new  states,"  he 
says,  "  had  completely  established  their  independence,  be- 
fore we  acknowledged  them."  We  have  recognised  Texas 
as  a  nation,  having  all  the  attributes  of  sovereignty,  and 
competent  to  the  discharge  of  all  the  obligations  of  an  in- 
dependent state.  And  what  is  Texas  ?  A  collection  of  a  few 
settlements,  which  would  vanish  at  once,  were  a  Mexican 
army  of  any  force  to  enter  the  country.  One  decisive  vic- 
tory would  scatter  all  Texas  like  a  horde  of  Tartars,  arid 
not  a  trace  of  its  institutions  and  population  would  remain. 
We  have  been  accustomed  to  think  of  a  nation  as  something 
permanent,  as  having  some  fixtures,  some  lasting  bond  of 
union.  There  would  be  nothing  to  hold  Texas  together, 
were  her  single,  small  army  to  be  routed  in  one  battle.  To 
send  a  minister  plenipotentiary  to  such  a  handful  of  people, 
made  up  chiefly  of  our  own  citizens,  is  to  degrade  the  forms 
of  national  intercourse.  This  new  republic,  with  its  Presi- 
dent and  diplomatic  corps,  has  been  called  a  Farce.  But 
the  tragic  element  prevails  so  much  over  the  farcical  in 
this  whole  business,  that  we  cannot  laugh  at  it.  The  move- 
ments of  our  government  in  regard  to  Texas  are  chiefly 
interesting,  as  they  are  thought  to  indicate  a  disposition 
favorable  to  its  annexation  to  our  country.  But  we  will  not 
believe,  that  the  government  is  resolved  on  this  great  wrong, 
unless  we  are  compelled  so  to  do.  We  hope,  that  the  pres- 
ent administration  will  secure  the  confidence  of  good  men 
by  well  considered  and  upright  measures,  looking  beyond 


69 

momentary  interests  to  the  lasting  peace,  order,  and  strength 
of  the  country. 

There  is  another  objection  to  the  annexation  of  Texas, 
which,  after  our  late  experience,  is  entitled  to  attention. 
This  possession  will  involve  us  in  new  Indian  wars.  Texas, 
besides  being  open  to  the  irruption  of  the  tribes  within  our 
territories,  has  a  tribe  of  its  own,  the  Camanches,  which  is 
described  as  more  formidable  than  any  in  North  America. 
Such  foes  are  not  to  be  coveted.  The  Indians !  that  omin- 
ous word,  which  ought  to  pierce  the  conscience  of  this 
nation,  more  than  the  savage  war-cry  pierces  the  ear.,  JThe 
Indians  !  Have  we  not  inflicted  and  endured  evil  enough  in 
our  intercourse  with  this  wretched  people,  to  abstain  from 
new  wars  with  them?  Is  the  tragedy  of  Florida  to  be  acted 
again  and  again  in  our  own  day,  and  in  our  children's? 

In  addition  to  what  I  have  said  of  the  constitutional  ob- 
jections to  the  annexation  of  Texas  to  our  country,  I  would 
observe,  that  we  may  infer,  from  the  history  and  language 
of  the  Constitution,  that  our  national  Union  was  so  far  from 
being  intended  to  spread  slavery  over  new  countries,  that, 
had  the  possibility  of  such  a  result  been  anticipated,  decided 
provisions  would  have  been  introduced  for  its  prevention. 
It  is  worthy  of  remark,  how  anxious  the  framers  of  that  in- 
strument were  to  exclude  from  it  the  word  Slavery.  They 
were  not  willing,  that  this  feature  of  our  social  system  should 
be  betrayed  in  the  construction  of  our  free  government.  A 
stranger  might  read  it,  without  suspecting  the  existence  of 
this  institution  among  us.  Were  slavery  to  be  wholly  abol- 
ished here,  no  change  would  be  needed  in  the  constitution, 
nor  would  any  part  become  obsolete,  except  an  obscure 
clause,  which,  in  apportioning  the  representatives,  provides 
that  there  shall  be  added  to  the  whole  number  of  free  per- 
sons "  three-fifths  of  other  persons."  Slavery  is  studiously 
thrown  into  the  back  ground.  How  little  did  our  forefathers 
suppose,  that  it  was  to  become  a  leading  interest  of  the  gov- 
ernment, to  which  our  peace  at  home  and  abroad  was  to  be 
made  a  sacrifice ! 

I  have  said,  that  I  desire  no  political  Union  with  commu- 
nities bent  on  spreading  and  perpetuating  slavery.  It  is 
hardly  necessary  to  observe,  that  this  was  not  intended  to 
express  a  desire  to  decline  friendly  intercourse  with  the 
members  of  those  communities.  Individuals,  who  have  re- 


70 

ceived  from  their  ancestors  some  pernicious  prejudice  or 
institution,  may  still,  in  their  general  spirit,  be  disinterested 
and  just.  Our  testimony  against  the  wrong  which  such 
men  practice  is  not  to  be  stifled  or  impaired  by  the  feelings 
of  interest  or  attachment  which  they  inspire  ;  nor,  on  the 
other  hand,  must  this  wrong  be  spread  by  our  imaginations 
over  their  whole  characters,  so  as  to  seem  their  sole  attri- 
bute, and  so  as  to  hide  all  their  claims  to  regard.  In  an 
age  of  reform,  one  of  the  hardest  duties  is,  to  be  inflexibly 
hostile  to  the  long  rooted  corruptions  of  society,  and  at  the 
same  time  to  be  candid  and  just  to  those  who  uphold  them. 
It  is  true,  that,  with  the  most  friendly  feelings,  we  shall 
probably  give  offence  to  those,  who  are  interested  in  abuses 
which  we  condemn.  But  we  are  not  on  this  account  ab- 
solved from  the  duty  of  cultivating  and  expressing  kindness 
and  justice,  of  laying  strong  restraint  on  our  passions,  and 
of  avoiding  all  needless  provocation. 

The  speech  of  Mr.  Adams  on  the  subject  of  the  preced- 
ing letter,  delivered  in  Congress,  December  1835,  should  be 
republished  and  circulated.  It  deserves  to  be  read  as  a 
specimen  of  parliamentary  eloquence ;  and  its  moral  and 
political  views  are  worthy  of  its  eminent  author. 

There  seems  to  be  an  apprehension  at  the  South,  that 
the  free  states,  should  they  obtain  the  ascendancy,  might 
be  disposed  to  use  the  powers  of  the  government  for 
the  abolition  of  slavery.  On  this  point,  there  is  but  one 
feeling  at  the  North.  The  free  states  feel,  that  they 
have  no  more  right  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  slaveholding 
states,  than  in  a  foreign  country.  They  regard  the  matter 
as  wholly  out  of  their  reach.  They  indeed  claim  the  right 
of  setting  forth  the  evils  of  slavery,  as  of  any  other  perni- 
cious and  morally  wrong  institution.  But  the  thought  of 
touching  the  laws  which  establish  it  in  any  state,  they  reject 
without  a  discordant  voice.  In  regard  to  the  District  of 
Columbia,  many  of  us  feel,  that  slavery  continues  there  by 
the  action  of  all  the  states,  that  the  free  states,  therefore,  are 
responsible  for  it;  and  we  maintain  that  it  is  most  unreason- 
able, that  an  institution  should  be  sustained  by  those  who 
hold  it  to  be  immoral  and  pernicious.  But  we  feel  no  such 
responsibility  for  slavery  in  the  slaveholding  states.  These 
states  must  determine  for  themselves  how  long  it  shall  con- 
tinue, and  by  what  means  it  shall  be  abolished.  We  solemnly 


71 

urge  them  to  use  their  power  for  its  removal ;  but  nothing 
would  tempt  us  to  wrest  the  power  from  them,  if  we  could. 
The  South  has  fears,  that  the  free  states  may  be  hurried 
away  by  "  enthusiasm  "  into  usurpation  of  unconstitutional 
powers  on  the  subject.  One  is  tempted  to  smile  at  the  want 
of  acquaintance  with  the  North,  which  such  an  apprehen- 
sion betrays.  This  enthusiasm,  to  endanger  the  South,  must 
spread  through  all  the  free  states ;  for  as  the  slaveholders  are 
unanimous,  nothing  but  a  like  unanimity  in  their  opponents 
can  expose  them  to  harm.  And  is  it  possible,  that  a  large 
number  of  communities,  spread  over  a  vast  surface,  having  a 
diversity  of  interests,  and  all  absorbed  in  the  pursuit  of  gain 
to  a  degree,  perhaps,  without  a  parallel,  should  be  driven  by  a 
moral,  philanthrophic  enthusiasm,  into  violations  of  a  national 
compact,  by  which  their  peace  and  prosperity  would  be  put 
in  peril,  and  into  combined  and  lawless  efforts  against  other 
communities,  with  whom  they  sustain  exceedingly  profitable 
connexions,  and  from  whom  they  could  not  be  sundered 
without  serious  loss?  Whoever  is  acquainted  with  the  free 
states  knows,  that  the  excesses,  to  which  they  are  exposed, 
are  not  so  much  those  of  enthusiasm,  as  of  caution  and 
worldly  prudence.  The  patience  with  which  they  have 
endured  recent  violent  measures  directed  against  their  citi- 
zens shows  little  propensity  to  rashness.  The  danger  is,  not 
so  much  that  they  will  invade  the  rights  of  other  members 
of  the  confederacy,  as  that  they  will  be  indifferent  to  their 
own. 

I  have  spoken  in  this  letter  of  the  estimation  in  which 
this  country  is  held  abroad.  I  hope  I  shall  not  be  num- 
bered among  those,  too  common  here,  who  are  irritably 
alive  to  the  opinions  of  other  nations,  to  the  censures  and 
misrepresentations  of  travellers.  To  a  great  and  growing 
people,  how  insignificant  is  the  praise  or  blame  of  a  travel- 
ler on  a  nation."  "  None  of  these  things  move  me."  But 
one  thing  does  move  me.  It  is  a  sore  evil  that  freedom 
should  be  blasphemed,  that  republican  institutions  should 
forfeit  the  confidence  of  mankind,  through  the  unfaithful- 
ness of  this  people  to  their  trust. 

In  reviewing  this  letter,  I  perceive  that  I  have  used  the 
strong  language,  in  which  the  apprehension  of  great  evils 
naturally  expresses  itself.  I  hope  this  will  not  be  construed 
as  betokening  any  anxieties  or  misgivings  in  regard  to  the 


72 

issues  of  passing  events.  I  place  a  cheerful  trust  in  Provi- 
dence. The  triumphs  of  evil,  which  men  call  great,  are 
but  clouds  passing  over  the  serene  and  everlasting  heavens. 
Public  men  may,  in  craft  or  passion,  decree  violence  and 
oppression.  But  silently,  irresistibly,  they  and  their  works 
are  swept  away.  A  voice  of  encouragement  comes  to  us 
from  the  ruins  of  the  past,  from  the  humiliations  of  the 
proud,  from  the  prostrate  thrones  of  conquerors,  from  the 
baffled  schemes  of  statesmen,  from  the  reprobation  with 
which  the  present  age  looks  back  on  the  unrighteous  policy 
of  former  times.  Such  sentence  the  future  will  pass  on 
present  wrongs.  Men,  measures,  and  all  earthly  interests 
pass  away;  but  Principles  are  Eternal.  Truth,  justice,  and 
goodness  partake  of  the  omnipotence  and  immutableness  of 
God,  whose  essence  they  are.  In  these,  it  becomes  us  to 
place  a  calm,  joyful  trust,  in  the  darkest  hour. 


JAMES    MUNROE    AND    CO 

ARE    PUBLISHERS   OF 

THE    FOLLOWING    WORKS, 


SLAVERY,  BY  WILLIAM    E.    CHANNING.     Fourth 

Edition. 
LETTER  of  WILLIAM  E.  CHANNING  to  JAMES   G, 

BlRNEY. 

A  LETTER   to  the    Hon.  HARRISON    GRAY  OTIS, 
PELEG  SPRAGUE,  and  RICHARD  FLETCHER,  Esq. 


